Clover all over : North Carolina 4-H in action

CLOVER ALL OVER

North Carolina 4-H in Action

James W. Clark, Jr.

Associate Professor of English
North Carolina State University

NCSU 4-H and YOUTH 1984

Copyright ' 1984 Office of 4-H and Youth

North CaroUna State University, Raleigh

All Rights Reserved

Special thanks are due Emily Ballinger, Dan Holler, Fred
Wagoner, Lyman Dixon, Cleo Edwards, Bill Cooper, Helen Thomp-
son, and Maurice Toler. I am especially grateful to lona Neely
of the North Carolina State University Archives and to the
committee appointed by Dr. Donald Stormer to launch and steer
the early stages of this state 4-H history. Of that group, only
Mary Sue Moser Stephens has not lived to see the job com-
pleted, but her mark is on the work itself. No part of this project
would have survived without the assistance of Bill Carpenter
and Jimmy Tart. Their guidance in editing and in the selection
of photographs from their department's files has given the story
its activity and stability.

May 10, 1984

J. W. C, Jr.

Queen's Creek waterfront at Mitchell 4-H Camp.

To Macy Mallard and the host of past and present secretar-
ies on the county and state levels of 4-H who provide hourly
leadership to the men and women who lead the boys and girls
and their adult volunteers, this narrative is inscribed.

I

BEGINNING

"// teachers realize how much the efficiency, com-
fort, and happiness of their pupils will be increased
throughout their lives from being taught to cooperate
with nature and to take advantage of her wonderful
laws, they will eagerly begin this study. They will
find also that their pupils will be actively interested
in these studies bearing on their daily lives, and this
interest will be carried over to other subjects. When-
ever you can, take the pupils into the field, the
garden, the orchard, and the dairy. "

Daniel Harvey Hill,
Agriculture for Beginners (1903)

The men who pioneered club work and turned it into 4-H in this state
gathered in Ahoskie in 1955. Pictured are Com Club charter members
Dr. Raleigh Parker, C. A. Worrell, E. C. Hill, Charles Parker (the first
state com champion), T. E. Browne (the local leader who later served
as State Club Agent), Henry T. Browne, J. Raynor Moore, and Troy
Newsome. At the right stand founding State Club Agent I. O. Schaub
and L. R. Harrill, the first State 4-H Leader in North Carolina.

A Beginning That Worked

The actual decision had been made around Thanksgiving,
but Extension's various clubs for North CaroUna's rural boys
and girls were not officially called 4-H until January 1, 1926.
This important date provides perspective; there are really two
club stories to be related. The first is about a beginning that
worked, about corn and then tomato clubs whose growth and
expanding program called for a unifying name and symbol that
already had some national and state currency. The second story
is about the gradual acceptance of 4-H Clubs and their manifold
development after 1926 by old and new agents, leaders, and
members alike. Both of these club accounts wear well; the rea-
son is not far afield. For the durable early spirit of learning
agricultural and home management skills the demonstration
way has still not been plowed under or completely wiped away
by time.

Far less obscure than the specific place of Extension's origi-
nal North Carolina clubs in the national lifeline of 4-H are a
number of significant improvements in our society's educa-
tional policy. In July 1862, for instance, President Lincoln
signed the Morrill Act. It authorized the establishment of land-
grant colleges in the various states, ultimately even in those
then seceded from the federal union. The granted public land,
intended to be sold as endowments for the new state colleges,
amounted to 30,000 acres for each congressman a state could
legally elect. With two senators and seven representatives.
North Carolina's grant amounted to 270,000 acres. Since this
considerable territory under federal title did not exist within
this state, the figure was denoted in reserve land script. Also in
1862 the United States Department of Agriculture was estab-
lished by Congress. It was not until 1867 that the North Caro-
lina Legislature, which had accepted its Morrill Act script the
year before, designated the old University at Chapel Hill as
grantee. That August its trustees agreed to sell the script to a
Michigan firm for 50 cents an acre.

At the end of Reconstruction a decade later the North
Carolina Department of Agriculture came into being. It was 10
more years, however, before the legislature resolved to found
North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts
at Raleigh. October 3, 1889 was opening day for this bonafide
land-grant institution. Its leading objective, "without excluding

other scientific and classical studies and including military tac-
tics," was to "teach such branches of learning as are related to
agriculture and the mechanic arts ... in order to promote the
liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the
several pursuits and professions in life." To these words from
the original Morrill Act of 1862 had been added, by the Hatch
Act of 1887, the provision of federal aid for agricultural experi-
ment stations at all land-grant colleges. Similar stations or test
farms were already a decade old in North Carolina; after 1889,
however, they were operated jointly by the new college and
state as well as federal specialists.

The year 1890 saw two significant tendencies, hindsight
reveals, toward the beginnings of club work in this state. In
Raleigh, under the direction of the State Agriculture Depart-
ment, the Farmers' Institute for men was begun. It would be
1906 before Director T. B. Parker would expand the material of
these seasonal short courses to attract the farmers' wives and
children, however. The other educational tendency of 1890
brought quicker results to certain Tar Heel youth. The Second
Morrill Act, in addition to providing for continued federal fund-
ing to support land-grant colleges, also made possible the estab-
lishment of 17 agricultural and mechanical colleges for Negroes
in the South. Among these new institutions was North Carolina
A&T, opened at Greensboro in 1891.

A private, out-of-state development of considerable initial
importance to club growth in North Carolina was the founding
of the General Education Board by John D. Rockefeller in 1902.
Endowed with millions for "the promotion of education within
the United States without distinction of race, sex, or creed," this
Board had by 1906 agreed to join forces with the USDA. Under
this agreement Cooperative Farm Demonstration Work was
begun in this state in the fall of 1907 by Cassius R. Hudson.
That November he set up state offices with a federal budget of
$8,000 in Statesville. Neither the Agriculture Department nor
State College would provide this federal agent either space or
assistants in Raleigh.

The preceding year the state itself had designated an agent
to extend certain new practices from the state's test farms to the
farmers themselves. Hudson was funded to designate demon-
stration farms in the separate counties of the state. These
privately-owned farms were to be operated under federal guide-
lines for the benefit of surrounding farmers. This work con-

flicted with the state's practices. In 1908, despite the conflict,
Mr. Hudson organized eight counties in demonstration farming,
including his Iredell base. The next year the number of counties
doubled. That second year, near Statesville, he also worked with
boys in corn and poultry clubs. Another conflict between federal
and state dominion erupted. Since 1906 the North Carolina
Farmers' Institute had been offering prizes to boys for corn pro-
duction. While Hudson's youth clubs were not official in the
eyes of Washington, Mr. Parker of the Institute lacked the

C. R. Hudson at his desk, the evidence of a busy man.

organization to put club work in tassel himself. Under these cir-
cumstances it is understandable that the rural folk were some-
times skeptical and confused. Certainly professional patience
was tried in Statesville and in Raleigh.

The first decade of this century was also vexing in North
Carolina public schools. In 1900, in contrast to private schools,
they operated only about 75 days in the year; only 65 percent of
the youth of school age attended. This waste of winter time and
young talent by the state was to be abandoned, however, large-
ly through the huge energies of Governor Charles B. Aycock.

. - * .•■„ •» '.

4-H'ers play softball in the orchard meadow at Camp Schaub near
Waynesville.

His educational campaign began in 1901. By 1907, under a new
administration, a system of public high schools had been estab-
lished, and compulsory school attendance laws were in force. At
the decade's end more than 3,000 new schools had been built in
North Carolina. This educational revolution across Tar Heelia
had numerous meanings; among them was this: the way was
now open for agricultural agents, if cooperation among them
could be realized, to work with club boys and girls more conven-
iently than ever before. This opportunity to begin was enhanced
by the thorough willingness of Superintendent of Public In-
struction J. Y. Joyner to open the state's new schools to state
and federal agricultural club agents.

The power of demonstration will not reveal exactly where or
when in this series of educational developments the actual
seeds of the clubs that became 4-H were gathered by chance or
selected with purpose. Yet the year 1909 dawned with promise
for Tar Heel youth, for public school personnel, for various agri-
cultural agents, and for North Carolina State College. In the
imaginations of many people a question arose with that spring-
time sun: "Has some great movement begun?"

Seventy-five years later, we have another question.

Almost Everything

"What is 4-H in North Carolina today?"

"4-H is almost everything," comes the bold reply of an
active member.

The characteristic adaptability of 4-H to youth's customary
needs as well as to individual desires transforms both 4-H work
and play into unusually fulfilling activities. What a member
merely hears may be forgot; what a 4-H'er sees and does will
have lasting educational value. The club slogan of "learning by
doing" openly admits, however, to trial and error, that fertile
soil of personal growth. Of course the member's trials and
errors, in addition to the triumphs in 4-H life, are shared by
trained extension agents and local volunteer leaders, by par-
ents, donors, and by other 4-H members. All of these people, in
response to the member's specific interests in branching out,
provide the space or other means of growth — including appro-
priate current literature — without blocking out the essential
sunshine of self.

Deep down the member learns that the club motto "To

Make the Best Better" is a patient philosophy of personal
changes, of gradual physical and spiritual development. The
United States Department of Agriculture botanist who in 1911
proposed this wording eventually adopted in 1927 for 4-H boys
and girls truly understood the expanding boundaries of their
evolution. If this same botanist were to question our active Tar
Heel 4-H'ers today, she would let it be known that 4-H responds
to society's changes as well as to the developing member. For
example, age limits for membership — 9 to 19 since 1962 — have
been lowered over the years as the national youth population
has gradually increased in number, mobility, and budding sophisti-
cation. In 1912 boys between 10 and 18 could sign up; during
World War I this range was lowered temporarily to age 8. The
initial limits for North Carolina club girls were ages 10 and 20.
In 1956 the range for both boys and girls was 10 to 21, the same
membership requirement North Carolina had used for its rural
youth since the late 1920s. As the proportion of young people
living in rural areas steadily decreased, to cite another response
to society — 4-H literally went to town for additional members,
especially as the 1950s wore on. A major proliferation of pro-
jects and activities was one result of 4-H's new clientele. Char-
acteristic of the decades of the 1960s and 1970s has been
another two-fold accommodation; 4-H in North Carolina and
elsewhere has undertaken a racially integrated program con-
ducted not, as traditionally, in the public schools, but mainly in
local or community clubs. In very recent times, 4-H'ers at-large
and special interest groups have been popular; and television
series in nutrition, general science, and photography have
reached several hundred thousand members.

The second reason for accepting and cultivating the asser-
tion that 4-H is almost everything is the product of the tradi-
tional comparison of 4-H with the member's formal schooling.
More frequently than to vocational or social clubs, scouting, or
to church youth programs and the Y, 4-H and its forerunners
have been compared to the classroom. By 1915 this trend had
been established. These analyses are both historically and pres-
ently sound, even if 4-H is today a community program with
only one remaining taproot to society's school system. This
taproot is 4-H's employment of the elementary skills of figuring,
reading, and writing from the very start of a member's partici-
pation. To read and apply or demonstrate recent agricultural
information in the production and processing of corn or toma-

8

4-H high technology at McKimmon Center.

Back to basics at Millstone.

What better evidence could suggest the club member's pride in prac-
tical as well as elementary skill?

toes, then to figure the economics of the undertakings, and
finally to write an account of the efforts were always basic to
club membership. Those first boys and girls were transforming
the abstract skills of the schools into the practical tools of better
living. In 1916, for example, with Pig and Poultry as well as
Corn Clubs in action, the State Club Agent passed out arith-
metic problems like the following to the membership: "A pig
weighed 35 pounds when the Pig Club record started; it gained
1.07 pounds per day for 180 days. What did it weigh at the end
of that period?"

Yet the club experience was not successful if the smart pup
farmers and homemakers became numerical drudges who
shunned recreation, singing, and dance. Neither were these
young members to become recluses. 4-H'ers would never watch
society go from boulders to gravel if their capable hands could
salvage the useful rocks as building stones. For 4-H is as solid
in recreation, leadership, and citizenship as in more practical
skills. And the 4-H year is 12 months long, ample time for its
numerous activities and records, all fostered by that original
corn and tomatoes, to reach harvest and beyond. North Caro-
lina 4-H camping — yearly including more than 18,000 youth in
its statewide summer programs — educational as well as recrea-

10

tional travel, plus both national ana international exchanges of
older members flourish in towns, suburbs, and the cities of the
state without ever having pulled up roots from the 4-H country-
side where almost everything began.

Certainly 4-H has more broad characteristics than its amaz-
ing adaptability and the genuine transformation of abstract
skills and desires into meaningful realities for youth. And a
member does not have to be as active as a puppy in clover to be
a fulfilled participant. Consider, for another example, the out-
look of North Carolina's 1978 State Council 4-H officers. Elected
representatives of the total membership of over 97,000, these
four chiefly responsible for selecting programs and themes for
the club year. They cite personal growth, spiritual fulfillment,
community dedication, and service to others as the largest
foundation stones in the complex club they inhabit. Of special
thematic importance to them is a wiser use by all of the increas-
ing leisure time we have. Successful among past generations of
North Carolinians who were necessarily preoccupied with daily
work and worship, 4-H in these terms now thrives among
members and leaders alike who work in order to live but no
longer seem destined to live only to work. For these new times
the 1978 officers also undertook the selection of an original
state 4-H song. Similar recent projects include county and dis-

Acting is one of the meaningful realities for today's club boys and girls.

11

trict 4-H flags, support for the state zoo, a needlepoint tapestry
of the counties, and a club time capsule, buried at Penn, to be
opened in 2076.

Donald L. Stormer, who became State 4-H Leader in June
1976 and only the fourth person to come into that position in 50
years, has been the responsive 4-H program's official spokes-
man. "Wise consumerism, career exploration, and production
and management in the related fields of agriculture and home
economics are a major part of the program," he writes. "These
and other programs, such as community action, environmental
awareness, leisure education, fire and bike safety and horse-
manship, point to the fact that 4-H is constantly striving to
meet the changing needs of boys and girls."

1978 State 4-H Council officers: Mike Helms, Jill Kinton, Miriam Nance,
and Dale Safrit.

12

It is generally known that
4-H is the outreach to the na-
tion's youth of the Cooperative
Extension Service, a vast fed-
eral agency of trained agents
and specialists; in this case com-
posed of the United States De-
partment of Agriculture, the
North Carolina Agricultural Ex-
tension Service at North Caro-
lina State University at
Raleigh and A&T State Uni-
versity at Greensboro, and the
Extension personnel in the 100
counties of the state. These
three levels of leadership, in-
corporated by the Smith-Lever
Act of 1914, provide the pro-

Stormer

gram's policies, rules, and regulations in addition to a portion of

At the 1976 burial at Penn of the 4-H time capsule, State Council presi-
dent Carol Myers presided in a jacket featuring the red, white, and
blue 4-leaf clover designed and produced by NCSU as a bicentennial
logo. The capsule, sealed by Secretary of State Thad Eure and to be
opened in a century, holds microfilm of photographs, club programs,
and news clippings.

13

the budget. Joining in to support 4-H financially are industries,
private businesses, and citizens, as well as organizations and
agencies like the North Carolina 4-H Development Fund. A list
of the various donors in North Carolina alone would run to
more than a hundred entries today; many of them have been on
the list from 30 to 50 years. These facts are testimony not only
to the strength of 4-H's popular image and support but also to
the numerous projects and activities in which a young member
can learn by doing to make the best better.

In the past decade, according to Dr. Stormer, $4 in private
capital and services match every $1 of public money spent for
4-H in North Carolina. Approximately 13,000 adult and teen
leaders, for example, annually volunteer their services in the
state's total program.

To express the richness of the program in nonfinancial
terms, we need only examine the statistics of where 4-H mem-
bers live. In 1974, for example, during the tenure of Dr. Chester
Black, North Carolina's third state 4-H leader, 29 percent of the
membership lived on farms, 50 percent lived in towns of fewer
than 10,000 people, and 21 percent lived in more densely settled
areas. Among all these members, incidentally, the most popular

July 27, 1977 State Congress delegates prime the 4-H fountain at
McKimmon Center with water from across the state.

14

Black

Blalock

projects were Health, Foods and Nutrition, Clothing, Bicycle,
Crafts and Horse. Black became the state's Extension Director
in 1981.

Former N.C. Director of Extension, Dr. T. C. Blalock, once a
Tar Heel 4-H'er and the state's second 4-H leader from 1964
until 1970, also has an apt measure of 4-H's good fortune:
"While 4-H might be thought of as a worthwhile opportunity for
the state's youth even without awards for outstanding achieve-
ments, thankfully no other youth program, public or private,
enjoys 4-H's broad spectrum of support."

Ample evidence of 4-H plenty and harmonious growth is at
hand. There is clover all over North Carolina. In truth, whether
4-H is thought of here as a thriving adaptive plant or as a
youthful program still being built on broad foundation stones is
only a matter of our preference for figurative expression. We
might just as well say that 4-H is Extension's youth program
which believes that both education and recreation are in life's
mainstream, not merely tributaries to the once daily flood of
work. And this view may be translated into very plain lan-
guage, the actual words of Dr. C. B. Smith who was director of
the Federal Extension Service in the early 1920s when 4-H

15

began to thrive in this part of the United States. Director Smith
said that "education is not preparation for hfe but Hfe itself and
that 4-H Clubs can help interest boys and girls in real life
problems."

With 12 champions in projects as diverse as bread and soil
science, North Carolina's delegates to National 4-H Congress in
1983 witnessed a special celebration of Director Smith's durable
notion. A musical extravaganza called "4-H: An American
Idea" was put on for the assembly of 2,000 by this state's
dynamic 4-H Performing Arts Troupe. Singing, dancing, and
acting through 75 years of club history, 33 boys and girls from
all over North Carolina carried out their 22 numbers with "life
itself," as it were. Adult volunteers assisted with makeup, stag-
ing, props, and costuming. Before going to Chicago, the troupe
directed by Mark Dearmon and Wendy Leland had performed
in Alleghany and Bladen counties as well as at State 4-H
Congress.

Even wooden horses see action among Harnett County's 4-H'ers.

16

The Remainder in Outstanding Service

As early as 1931 Tar Heel youth had experienced the enrich-
ments of 4-H life to the point of organizing, under the guidance
of L. R. Harrill, our first State 4-H Leader, a perpetual service
group of older, outstanding members. In several counties sim-
ilar local groups had been organized as early as 1927. With this
successful state work ongoing, curiosity about the national
roots of 4-H developed. One of the founding members of the
North Carolina 4-H Honor Club, Boyce Brooks of Duplin
County, dug for evidence. In early September 1931 he found in
his Calypso mailbox the following information, supplied by
I. W. Hill, the venerable USDA Field Agent for the Southern
States:

I note your request for some facts about the beginning
of 4-H Club Work. No complete history of this work
has ever been written. The first agent employed to do
the work was W. H. Smith of Holmes County, Missis-
sippi. He was paid $1 per year in order that he might
use the frank in the work. Mr. Smith was Superin-
tendent of Education in Holmes County. He and the
county agents did much in outlining the work. He was
afterward Superintendent of Education and President
of A&M College of that state. Club work really began
in 1909 when Mr. O. B. Martin, Ex-Superintendent of
Education of South Carolina was brought into the
office by Dr. Seaman A. Knapp. Mr. Martin did the
pioneering. In 1911 he brought Mr. Benson of Iowa in
to the office. He and Mr. Benson worked out the 4-H
Club emblem. Miss Carrie Harrison is the author of
the motto, "To Make the Best Better." In 1912 the
work was begun in the northern states and Mr. Ben-
son was transferred into the Office of Extension,
North and West. I succeeded Mr. Benson in that year.
From a comparatively few thousand members in 1912,
the work in the southern states has grown to 380,000
and a total membership in the United States of about
880,000. We would like to see every farm boy and girl
in the United States engaged in the work.

One important function of this letter is to acquaint us with
Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, the heroic founder and shaper of Ameri-

17

«!%,
f-^^'

Schaub

McKimmon

can demonstration farming and homemaking, the man who
had sent C. R. Hudson to North Carohna in 1907. Field Agent
Hill's outline of this work in relation to boys and girls, who very
often brought the demonstration way to the farmsteads from
the country schools, has been filled in and expanded again and
again since 1931. For instance, North Carolina's three pioneers
in this national rural adventure have left accounts of their own
pathfindings.

Ira Obed Schaub, who served as the state's first Corn Club
Agent, prepared two brief histories of demonstration work, one
of them entitled "The Way I See It." He began work May 1,
under a "Memorandum of Understanding" signed earlier that
spring by G. H. Powell, Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry,
USDA, and D. H. Hill, President of North Carolina State Col-
lege. Dr. Knapp and O. B. Martin had cleared the way for this
event. N. C. State, which holds the honor of having signed the
first in a series of these memoranda, designated Schaub its first
Professor of Agricultural Extension and paid his salary until
July 1 when the historic agreement went into effect. Afterwards
financing came from Washington for salary and travel ex-
penses through appropriations from the General Education
Board. Schaub remained Corn Club Agent in North Carolina
through June 1913. During his first month in 1909, with Mar-

18

tin's aid, he organized the first official Corn Club in the state at
Ahoskie in Hertford County. Throughout Schaub's club tenure,
planning for and sponsoring home life as well as farm life clubs
in rural schools for Tar Heel youth went forward.

Each club was to elect its own officers; a teacher was to be
club adviser. His plan, never fully realized, also called for a
county association of adult advisors and student officers. Over
all, there was to be a state association. Club meetings were to be
held as often as necessary for the good of the work. Club Agent
Schaub also envisioned local, county, and state contests. If his
plan of work was never fully realized in these details, in one
administrative area his success was classic. The impasse
reached by Hudson and the state Agriculture Department in
1907-08 was resolved after Schaub's arrival in 1909. In 1911 Mr.
Hudson moved to Raleigh as State Farm Agent. Mr. Parker of
the Farmer's Institute and Mr. Schaub agreed for the College to
organize all Corn Club work — one of Parker's assistants even
came out to the College to help — and the Institute would con-
tinue to supply some of the club prizes. Farm Agent Hudson
and Club Agent Schaub shared the same campus office in Pat-
terson Hall. Mr. Hudson also had an office downtown in the
Agriculture Building.

November 24, 1911, following a successful seasonal canning
experiment in Guilford County, Schaub hired Jane S. McKim-
mon, an Institute employee, to inaugurate Canning Clubs for
girls in the state. Her heartening narrative of this work and her
related service as the state's first Home Demonstration Agent
was published in 1945 as When We're Green We Grow. Schaub,
who had become Director of Extension in North Carolina in
July 1924, after an absence of approximately a decade from his
native state, continued to the last to believe that his early selec-
tion of this paragon of duties for work with the state's rural
girls and women was the finest job he ever did in Agricultural
Extension. Others also recognized her genius which ran in the
spirit of Dr. Knapp, who had died in April 1911. He had once
stated this philosophy of the initial work undertaken by women
like McKimmon: "Cultivation of the tomato plant will take us
into the home garden; canning the tomatoes will give us en-
trance to the farm kitchen; tomatoes fresh and canned will be a
valuable supplement to the family diet; the sale of tomatoes will
provide income for the girls. What the program will do for the
farm home depends on our interest, intelligence, and persever-

19

ance." These ingredients the new North CaroUna Agent clearly
had. Her own incisive view can be simply stated: the ultimate
object of demonstration work was the uplift of rural life, but the
first step was to get a few dollars into the farmgirl's pocket so
that the girl could buy material for a new dress, perhaps a piece
of finery, and a couple of school books.

At the outset of her employment, ironically, Mrs. McKim-
mon herself was provided with neither office space nor staff.
Her own dining-room table was her first Extension desk, and
her five family members were her clerical assistants. One of her
first chores, actually performed without pay, was to judge the
canning exhibits at the 1911 North Carolina State Fair. She
picked for the top prize the tomato display of young Julia Ran-
kin, a participant in a Guilford County experiment in canning
completed earlier that summer. McKimmon's keen judgment
was validated immediately, for Julia's display went on to take
the top prize at the South Carolina Fair as well as at an exposi-
tion in Chicago. This club girl's fame had spread even farther
than the fame of Corn Club member Charlie Parker, who in
1909 had been a charter boy in the now famous Hertford
County Club and who in 1911 produced an incredible acre yield
of 235 bushels, which is equal to 196 bushels of dry-shelled corn.

Added to the administrative cooperation achieved in 1911
and the hiring of Mrs. McKimmon, these club members' out-
standing records made an expanded club program seem possi-
ble for North Carolina in 1912. In fact, with the assistance of
State School Superintendent Joyner and his county counter-
parts. Canning Clubs had been organized by that summer in
these 14 counties: Alamance, Catawba, Edgecombe, Gates, Gran-
ville, Guilford, Hertford, Madison, Mecklenburg, Moore, Pitt,
Wake, Wilkes, and Wayne. The death of the Hertford agent
caused that county's withdrawal; Warren County filled the
vacancy.

The work with boys also progressed in 1912. Mr. Schaub
even arranged for about half a dozen Granville County corn
champions to spend a couple of days at State College, anticipat-
ing in this small way 4-H Short Courses, Club Weeks, and State
Congresses of the years to come. As early as 1910, by the way, a
Catawba Corn Club champion named Earnest Starnes had won
a club trip to Washington, D. C. Many on similar missions have
followed in his steps.

It was the fall of 1912 before the State Canning Club Agent

20

began to share Farm Agent Hudson's downtown office and
staff. By then Mrs. McKimmon was also hsted in the Catalogue
of N. C. State as an Assistant in Agricultural Extension. But
this same printing's description of this fledgling department,
with Schaub as its sole professor, shows that demonstration
work was still officially directed at farmers and their sons:

The Department of Agriculture Extension was organ-
ized July 1, 1909. This department was and is made
possible by the help of the General Education Board
in the United States. The work is closely correlated
with that of the United States Department of Agricul-
ture. The object of the department is to link the scien-
tific agricultural work of the College and Station to
the practical work on the farms of the State. Each
year the trained scientific workers of America add to
the fund of information needed by progressive
farmers. The object of this department is to carry this
information to the busy men on the farm, and to help
in the teaching of farm science in our schools. This is
done by addresses to farmers, by farm schools held in
different sections, holding seed-corn days, organizing
boys' corn clubs, and in such other ways as time and
occasion may permit.

Time and occasion appear to have been permissive. The
Smith-Lever fund for Cooperative Extension in North Carolina
was accepted by Governor Locke Craig on June 10, 1914, just
one month after enactment by Congress. The State Legislature
of 1915 approved the arrangement in March. For the sake of
efficiency the new Extension Service undertook its work in a
series of clear-cut projects. Project number 4 was "Home Eco-
nomics, including Girls' Club Work." Number 5 was "Boys'
Club Work," and project 11 was "Negro Boys' Club Work." By
this time Mrs. McKimmon and her single state assistant had
agents in 37 counties where a total of 200 Canning Clubs had
been organized.

As Director of Extension it was also L O. Schaub who
selected Leary Rhinehart Harrill in November 1925 for the new
position of State 4-H Leader, effective January 1, 1926. Having
already worked during 1922 and 1923 as County Club Agent in
Buncombe, in more time Mr. Harrill would be revered up and
down North Carolina as Mr. 4-H. But in the beginning it was

21

Mrs. McKimmon's staff that pro-
vided the new statewide 4-H pro-
gram its statistical and spirit-
ual head, heart, hands, and
health in the membership of a
vast network of organized home
economics clubs for girls. It
would be the 1940s before Mr.
Harrill fully developed his most
notable 4-H voice, his way of
saying: "Big enough to cover
the entire world and flexible
enough to fit the needs of every
rural boy and girl — that is the
4-H Club." In less than two ad-
ditional decades his evolving
sense of club mission would
erase the word "rural" from his Harnll

articulated vision. In his still gifted style he loved to announce
as in the golden anniversary club year of 1959: "4-H trains
youth in the art of better living."

Always equally gladdened by good records and good recrea-
tion, Mr. 4-H blazed club camping trails in all areas of his
native state. Meanwhile his inspiration and toughness groomed
numberless larger-service citizens step by step. The ultimate
long-time records of his 4-H generations have been tributes to
an open society. Whether the club citadel was Washington, Chi-
cago, Raleigh, State 4-H Electric Congress, the fabled rocks at
Millstone 4-H Camp, or a county achievement day, it was the
reflection of his gleam in which Tar Heel youth most often
stood. But it could have been the songs he sang or that epical
laughter, for L. R. Harrill was a roundly talented leader, and
just as firm. Not long after he retired in August 1963 appeared
his perceptive Images of 4-H, soon followed by the equally com-
pelling Memories of 4-H. These books outspanned the nearly 40
years of his inimitable service. Until his death in April 1978,
this third pioneer in North Carolina's Extension youth program
continued to influence 4-H in active symbolic and financial
ways.

22

The 4-H Emblem, Name and Pledge

The working out of the 4-H emblem, mentioned only in
passing by I. W. Hill in his letter to Boyce Brooks in 1931, actu-
ally was a long, complicated process in the recording of na-
tional as well as state and local club affairs. In addition to the
Extension histories already introduced, there are these two
important sources for any chronicle of the clover emblem: Frank-
lin M. Reek's The 4-H Story of 1951 and "The Evolution of 4-H"
which Kenneth H. Anderson of the National 4-H Council pre-
pared for the June-July 1977 National 4-H News. A couple of
federal leaflets also help to clarify the matter. But relate the
emblem's development in whose words soever, a comprehensive
account of the green 4-leaf clover will especially interest natives
of the Old North State.

In 1911, already described as an important club year, the
nation's first canning school for state canning club agents and
leaders was held in July at Greensboro, with a number of local
club girls in attendance. Here in North Carolina was a sensible
location of this short course for several reasons. The chief

Agents in training to can tomatoes and green beans. The canner is the
popular Flowers model manufactured in Hickory. The can with the
label is a 4-H Brand for green beans.

23

women who came, for instance, represented the surrounding
states of Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Virginia.
Although Mrs. McKimmon would not go into club work in this
state until that November, three canning clubs had been organ-
ized during the spring of 1911 at Pleasant Garden, Bessemer,
and McLeansville in Guilford County. With $300 in salary from
the General Education Board, two local teachers had shared the
guidance of these clubs. Lucille Kennett had charge in her
community of Pleasant Garden; Annie L. Rankin supervised
the club girls in McLeansville, and together they sponsored the
Bessemer girls. Miss Kennett organized these county groups for
the Greensboro canning short course; it was the local girls'
tomatoes that would be canned in tins during the school. Mr.
O. H. Benson arrived from Washington to supervise the instruc-
tion and to represent Mr. Martin. There were at least two other
men there.

One was Mr. Flowers whose new canning outfit was to be
demonstrated to the agents. Small and portable, it consisted of
a water tank large enough to process a dozen ordinary cans; a
lifting tray; and a contained, metal firebox fueled by oil. Addi-
tional equipment included the tipping copper and capping steel,
two obstreperous implements for sealing the filled cans.

But certainly the most attentive student at the course was
the other man present: L O. Schaub. Earlier in the summer, at a
local canning school held down by the spring behind the Ran-
kin home in McLeansville, the State Corn Club Agent, who had
hired Miss Kennett and Miss Rankin, had failed as a tomato
processor himself. His assigned job that day had been to heat
and use the capping steel. The heating was no problem; sealing
tins filled with tomatoes was something else again. So when
this varied group from the southern region gathered near the
barn of the dairy farm supporting the state woman's college at
Greensboro in July 1911, Schaub stood in the first row.

In the long run, the most significant topic taken up during
this short course was the need for a suitable emblem for both
club members and their club products. Since the club girls in
these neighboring states were planning to put up tomatoes in
cans to be sold in public stores, a standard emblem or brand, a
club badge of uniform quality, was seen as necessary by the
women. Otherwise, the club business could not be promoted out-
side the homes. Both boys and girls, of course, would be in-
spired by a distinctive membership badge or chevron. Moreover,

24

many club boys throughout the South were finding seed corn
from their high-yielding plots in demand by adult farmers. A
standard label would aid Corn Club members too, Schaub and
Benson helped the assembled women and girls see.

When the Greensboro meeting ended, besides the success in
training both young and adult canning personnel, two impor-
tant advances had been made. Miss Kennett bought one of
Flowers' canners for use in rural Guilford County, and O. H.
Benson carried back to Washington the entire group's sense of
urgency about a club emblem.

Late that fall, after he and Martin had solicited suggestions
from 15 southern states on the questions, the design of the new
club emblem was struck. From then on the 4-leaf clover would
serve as a brand for canned goods and seed corn as well as for
membership and awards badges for both boys and girls. In real-
ity the source of this selection turned out to be Iowa, the native
state of Mr. Benson, who with other club agents there as early
as 1909 and 1910 had used both 3- and 4-leaf crafted clovers in
county awards programs.

Since coming to work at USDA in February 1911, O. H.
Benson had promoted the clover emblem among his colleagues
there and in the South as he visited and advised men and
women agents. One of his speeches for this tour had expressed
the awakening dream of certain educators since the 1890s, the
hope that rural leadership could be nurtured in terms of 4-H's in
addition to the traditional 3 R's. Benson said that these H's
stood for "Head, Heart, Hands and Hustle." It was O. B. Martin
who made the decision during the fall of 1911 that the fourth H
would stand for "Health."

In a federal circular, dated February 2, prepared by both
Benson and Martin and distributed to the state club agents in
the South by March 1912, the main features of the new emblem
for Boys' and Girls' Clubs were explained. The name 4-H was
not used, but each H was identified in the terms that still apply
today. The clover itself with four leaves appeared upon an open
book, the clover representing the principles of scientific farming
and the book denoting the educational needs of common people
in agriculture and home management. At the center of the
clover was placed a tomato or another appropriate commodity
to suggest the club member's specific undertaking. And finally,
the circular pointed out, "DEMONSTRATOR" was to appear on
the book above the clover. This vital word indicated that the

25

youth wearing the badge had agreed to read and follow all
instructions supplied by club agents. In a few additional words,
the guidelines for the new emblem's use as a commercial brand
were also established.

The brand's use in marketing club projects, incidentally,
first popularized 4-H as a name. It was common by 1915 for
official and popular references to be made to "4-H brands,"
uncommon for clubs or their members to be referred to as 4-H or
4-H'ers. Especially after 1913 when the emblem was officially
adopted by the region's home demonstration agents assembled
in Richmond for the Southern Educational Conference, the
brand had gone into active commercial circulation. An act of
Congress as late as 1939 first prohibited all unauthorized uses
of this emblem.

No other definitive statement or action on this matter took
place until February 1955, when Secretary of Agriculture Ezra
Taft Benson issued detailed regulations under the United States
Code for the use of both the 4-H emblem and name. These regu-
lations are still in effect. Their basic premise is that the name
and emblem are held in trust by the Secretary "for the educa-
tional and character building purposes of the 4-H Club program
and can be used only as authorized."

Wide distribution of this legislation has had the effect of
restraining undue exploitation of the organization, especially in
commercial terms; and, of course, publicity was directed to 4-H
at the same time. Certain leaflets printed in this campaign
deserve careful study. Those of August 1956 and September
1962, for example, appear to be slight publicity pamphlets; but
in fact their serious mission was to target new youth for 4-H. If
the change in membership from largely rural to rural, subur-
ban, and urban 4-H'ers was to succeed, it was necessary to re-
state the basic symbolism of the adaptive old club. Whereas in
1912 the clover had represented the principles of scientific farm-
ing, in 1956 the clover emblem of 4-H was officially defined by
its colors alone: the green suggesting the most common color in
nature and symbolizing youth, life, and growth; the white of the
emblem standing for purity. The 1962 edition offers the same
interpretation.

In 1973, a related adjustment of the 4-H pledge that had
been adopted in 1927 was effected. Delegates to National 4-H
Conference in Washington expanded the concluding line to
bring it into accord with the prevailing 4-H vision:

26

Planning and striving brought these Nort;h Carolina 4-H'ers national
championships in 1981.

I pledge:

My Head to clearer thinking,
My Heart to greater loyalty,
My Hands to larger service, and
My Health to better living,

for my Club, my Community, my Country, and my
World.

The addition of the "world" concept to the national 4-H
pledge in no way diminished the vitality of the program at
home. In response, for example, to the 200th birthday of the
United States, a committee of North Carolinians designed a
bicentennial logo for 4-H. This red, white, and blue 4-leaf clover,
a modernistic, patriotic ceremonial emblem, has served well in
this and some other states, without replacing in any way the
legally sanctioned green and white 4-leaf emblem.

27

A prevailing folk belief to the contrary, the official 4-H emb-
lem has never been a good luck charm. While 4-H does not dis-
parage either good luck or good fortune unforeseen, the organiza-
tion has kept the spirit of its famous motto of betterment
mainly by planning and striving. The name and emblem's slow
triumph in this state demonstrates that strenuous action by
people of all ages was required.

By turning the tables, we see how a young member can lead adult
volunteers in making the best better.

28

II

DOING

"You will find in the practical exercises many
suggestions as to experiments that you can make
with your class or with individual members. Do not
neglect this first-hand teaching. It will be a delight to
your pupils. In many cases it will be best to finish the
experiments or observational work first, and later
turn to the text to amplify the pupil's knowledge."

Daniel Harvey Hill,
Agriculture for Beginners (1903)

Buncombe girls preparing camp supper at Biltmore in 1919; the menu
included tomatoes and cheese.

29

GROW A rINE CLUB MEMBFR

YOU AND YOUR CALF BOTH NEtb

A BALANCEO RATION

MILK- GREEN FEED
ROUGHAGE - '.VHOLE GRAiN
CONCEWfRATES - PLENTY OF WAT^R

GOCJ LIVING HABITS

SUNSHINE - EXERCISE
L'jjD V£NTILAt|Jn
HEST - CLEANLINESS

A WELL-BUILT BODY
CONSTITUTION. VIGOR. SYWi^ JTR <

RAPID. UNCHECKED GROWTH
STRONG. STRAIGHT BACK
STRAIGHT LIMBS - CLEAN .JOINTS
GOOD HEArtT GIRTri - WELL SPRUNG .^IBo
UNOSSTRUCTEO aREATHING

A WELL RU?JNING BODY FINE CARRIAGE & ACTION

GOOD APPETITE - THOROUGH CHEWING HEAD UP - ALDJMEN IN

GOOD DIGESTION - REGUlAR BjWEL ACTION 3ACK STRAIGHT - FEET WELL PLACED

QUALITY
CLEAR EYES - GLOSSY HAIR
SMOOTH PLIABLE SKIN
B-3B
12-29

30

Browne

The Longest Decade

The decade beginning in
1915 must be the longest 10
years in the club stories of
North Carolina's rural youth.
Three separate club programs
were active at once. The result-
ing stresses of leadership on the
state and county levels threw
long, sometime gloomy shad-
ows over both the 4-H name
and emblem. An extensive dis-
cussion of these indistinct fore-
runners of 4-H is called for today since the annual reports of
that varied era were not uniform. Mere summaries would mis-
represent the complex club developments among white girls,
Negro youth, and white boys. Moreover, the introduction, large-
ly through determined trial and error, of so many components
of our current 4-H program between 1915 and 1925 makes this
period seem like a very long time, but not such a long time ago.

It is noteworthy, first, that the 4-H emblem itself did not
appear on a federal bulletin until 1918, and the club name did
not gain wide acceptance anywhere until about 1925. In North
Carolina both name and emblem got early exposure by these
standards.

Extension Farm News (EFN) began publication at West
Raleigh in February 1915; in the issue for May 15 ran a long
club story by T. E. Browne, the successor in early 1913 of I. O.
Schaub as Corn Club Agent. The 1915 article concluded in this
way:

These boys, having gotten into the spirit of Club
work, realizing the larger purposes of the club as
symbolized by the national emblem — the four-H pin
— which stands for the development of the whole
man, enter life with an entirely changed viewpoint . . .
with a desire to be of service to their fellow men.

31

Finally, through the agricultural clubs, we hope to
build up a wholesome social life in the country. There
is no phase of rural life more neglected today than the
social phase. Too many farmers forget that they were
ever young, and that there is a difference between
exercise and recreation.
In the October 16 issue that same year was featured a pho-
tograph of four club girls gathering tomatoes. The caption read:
"Some of the 4-H Girls. Training for Head, Hands, Heart, and
Health." While the arrangement of the last four words is con-
trary to current practice, the truly exceptional phrase was the
identification of club members as "4-H Girls." In the next
week's issue this practice continued, however, in publicizing the
recent corn harvest by club boys, 205 of whom had had exhibits
at the State Fair. The young man in this October picture was
not identified by name, but the information that was provided
is worth repeating: "One of the 4-H Boys. This brand of boy is
improving farm conditions in North Carolina. Thirty-seven 4-H
Boys are in the Agricultural and Mechanical College. Six have
won scholarships and are preparing to enter. Others have made
the farm a better place to live, and still others are sending their
sisters to college."

Although the identification of club girls and boys as 4-H
members was not to continue, even in EFN, far more substan-
tial reliance upon the 4-H emblem and name developed. At the
core of the matter was the happy suggestion that Mrs. McKim-

» r- f

Alamance County boys and girls at their annual club picnic, August
15, 1914, Club leaders stand with the members.

32

1915 club outing for Durham County clubs and leaders.

mon's Canning Club girls were so successful that they might, in
fact, send themselves and their brothers off to college. Girls
from 29 counties had sent exhibits to the 1915 State Fair, for
example. In June 1916 a circular entitled "Canning and Pre-
serving with 4-H Recipes" was published in Raleigh in an edi-
tion of 25,000 copies. Mrs. McKimmon and her small staff saw
the supply dwindle rapidly; in July 1917 a second edition was
prepared, and it, like the first, was soon distributed across this
state and far beyond— from Maine to Texas. Also in 1917,

TWP'

■^sr £■

^^ A

An early State Fair exhibit.

33

according to Mrs. McKimmon's annual report, "anything bear-
ing the 4-H brand was snapped up" by local merchants and cus-
tomers. 1918 saw yet another edition of this popular canning
and preserving bulletin.

In all three editions the 4-H brand was employed in three
ways; the first two uses were verbal. Mrs. McKimmon's inspired
words, for example, greeted the reader of the 1916 publication:

This bulletin on canning and preserving is intended
especially for members of the North Carolina Can-
ning Clubs, and contains regulations and standards
to which club members are expected to conform. The
purpose is to have a uniform standard for canning
club products over the whole state, and to permit the
4-H Brand to be seen from Cherokee to Currituck on
standard products only. There doubtless are many
outside recipes just as good, some that are perhaps
better; but these offered in the bulletin have been tried
for years, have proved satisfactory, and they are
chosen as the standards for North Carolina. Any club
member, therefore, canning under the 4-H Brand is
required to use them to the exclusion of all others.

Her introduction ended with an emblematic version of the same
idea:

The 4-H Brand represents Head, Hand, Heart, and

Health. In the production of a product which shall

rank with the best standard brands:

The Head is developed by devising ways and means,

and evolving plans.

The Hand is taught to cunningly and systematically

execute.

The Heart grows big enough to take in all other

workers and bid the hand lend assistance wherever it

is needed.

The Health is promoted by wholesome work in the

fresh air and the happy commingling of friends and

neighbors.

The third representation of the 4-H Brand in the circular
was pictorial. Four separate pictures especially popularized the
matter; three of them showed girls at work or the branded pro-
ducts of their labor — tomatoes and string beans as well as jelly.

34

The other picture showed a 1914 Mecklenburg County Canning
Club float on which club girls were costumed as tomatoes and
arranged around a large replica of a canning tin covered by the
4-H Brand. Intended as an ad for the upcoming canning and
marketing season, the float's banner read: "Head, Hand,
Health, Heart; Mecklenburg Tomatoes." Since the spring of
1912 this county's rural girls had been organized in canning
their homegrown, tenth-acre of tomatoes. In these famous bul-
letins their 4-H Brand work was widely proclaimed to a state
and nation about to undergo a severe military challenge that
would make expert food conservation a virtue.

It occasionally happened that young men also got involved
with the canning work for which these wonderful bulletins of
1916, 1917 and 1918 prepared the Tar Heel population in partic-
ular. In her 1920 annual report, for example, Mrs. McKimmon
related the story of two Wadesboro brothers, mere boys, who
started a community canning business in Anson County. Wal-
ter and James Tice placed a large canner in the family grove
and processed fruits and vegetables for the local folk at 10 cents
a can. Whenever a customer questioned their procedures, one
canning boy or the other replied: "We go exactly by the 4-H
Brand Book."

All was not always so clear and simple on the 4-H horizon
of the entire state, however. World War I, pestilence, and a very
busy man stood between club ideals and club realities between
1915 and 1925. There were surprises too.

This first instance is purely symptomatic. In a "Pig Club
Manual" published in July 1916, the month after the first of the
popular 4-H canning and preserving bulletins, ran this unex-
pected idea: "Club work will add a fourth 'R' (standing for right
living) to the now famous trio (reading, riting and rithmetic)."
Clearly this was a contrary point of view; yet we must conclude
that the idea of 4 R's instead of 4 H's was acceptable to those in
charge, both in Raleigh and Washington. For J. D. McVean, the
State College swine expert who wrote the bulletin, became in
February 1917 the first club specialist from North Carolina to
be hired away by USDA for national youth work! It was not
until August 1918 by contrast, that Schaub went with the fed-
eral department as Southern States Regional Director for Ex-
tension. Since leaving Raleigh as Corn Club Agent in 1913, he
had been Superintendent of Farm Demonstration Work for the
Frisco Railroad.

35

Wray

In early 1915 under the pro-
visions of Smith-Lever, with
Schaub's successor T. E.
Browne already two years into
his tenure, a rearrangement of
the expanding club program
had been perfected in Raleigh.
Browne became the Agent in
Charge of Boys' Agricultural
Clubs. More than 5,300 mem-
bers belonged to one of his
three clubs that same year:
3,504 to the old Corn Club;
1,056 to the Poultry Club; and
786 to the Pig Club. The work
in the two new clubs, organized
in the spring and fall of 1914
respectively, was to be con-
ducted jointly; with the Animal Husbandry Division of the Col-
lege Experiment Station providing technical instruction
through swine specialist McVean and poultry husbandryman
Allen G. Oliver, with Mr. Browne and his assistant A. K.
Robertson directing all field activities. In particular Mr. Robert-
son worked with Corn Club enrollment and the spiraling paper
work and travel. That year these two men alone covered more
than 28,000 miles of Carolina countryside, mostly by rail. For
his own part, Mr. Browne had always been a man of large
workloads.

The 1902 Wake Forest College graduate had become by
1909, when he prepared the ground for Schaub's founding of the
Hertford County Corn Club, both Superintendent of County
Schools and County Agent there. Coming to Raleigh in July
1913 he had set to the tasks of nurturing club growth among
boys almost singlehandedly. In December 1913 he proved to
both Washington and Raleigh the wisdom of his selection by
supervising the public schools' celebration of the rural South's
second annual Seaman A. Knapp Day. Browne's part made
North Carolina's fund raising efforts in memory of the demon-
stration pioneer even more successful than they had been in
1912 under Schaub. All of the money realized in this extensive
cooperative campaign was used to complete the Knapp Memo-
rial complex at Peabody Institute in Nashville, Tennessee.

36

Browne's early support of club projects extending beyond
the boundaries of this state anticipated his May 1915 EFN arti-
cle saluting Tar Heel club members in terms of the national 4-H
emblem of club work and play. It is clear, as well, that he
shared this full framework of club mission with John D. Wray,
who in 1915 became his first Negro assistant, to be based on the
A&T campus in Greensboro and from there to organize Farm
Maker's Clubs among Negro youth. In 1914 the first club for
minority boys and girls had been organized in Sampson County
under the supervision of local agent G. W. Herring, one of six or
seven Negroes then so employed in North Carolina. At Parme-
lee in Martin County, Oliver Carter had formed a club of Negro
boys in 1915. The continued growth of Canning Clubs for white
girls after 1912 has already been demonstrated. But there were
startling and demanding differences between the growth of
Browne's clubs and McKimmon's. The main difference can be
suggested in the distinct use each leader made of the national
emblem and name. Browne took the broad approach, trying to
rally over 50,000 pig, poultry, and corn demonstration youth
around a club pin that symbolized service, hard work well
recorded, and social recreation. McKimmon put the 4-H Brand
into organized, commercial service for the promotion of girls'
standard, home-canned tomatoes. Her 1915 membership of al-
most 3,000 girls was enrolled in Canning Clubs only, the profit
of their concerted work amounting to over $75,000.

In October 1916 Browne's state staff was joined by S. G.
Rubinow, a new assistant from Texas; and Mr. Robertson was
given more time for the expanding Corn Club composed of indi-
viduals as opposed to truly organized members. A new swine
specialist replaced McVean, whom Washington had called. The
total enrollment in Boys' Agricultural Clubs climbed to over
8,000 boys and some girls. For since Mrs. McKimmon and her
state staff of Margaret Scott and Minnie L. Jamison had not
seen it as wise to expand the subject matter of club work far
beyond canning as yet, any girls inclined to enroll, but not
interested in food preparation and processing, had generally
ended up in one of the plant, poultry, or livestock clubs of Mr.
Browne. In the case of work among Negroes, it would be 1918,
with the initial appointment of Negro home agents in 19 coun-
ties under World War I emergency appropriations, before Mr.
Wray could begin to pass many of his female Farm Makers'
Club members into these more capable hands. In 1919, though,

37

5,300 Negro girls were enrolled in Canning Clubs in approxi-
mately 40 counties. In this way, Mrs. McKimmon's organized
work with all club girls increased dramatically in number but
not significantly in kind.

The unwieldly, if ultimately wise, division of labor between
McKimmon and Browne was poignantly illustrated in the issue
of EFN for March 24, 1917. Publicizing in a pyramid of national
scope the words that would in time become the official 4-H Club
motto, the design showed how boys' and girls' clubs linked rural
schools and homes through stimulated interest and knowhow in
canning, pigs, and poultry, as well as in corn, peanuts, cotton,
and potatoes.

In view of the addition of several new Plant Clubs since
1916, as suggested in this drawing, the annual report for 1917
showed that Browne's staff had been enlarged once more. Corn,
pig, and poultry specialists became special club agents. Mr.
Wray also gained an assistant. He was L. E. Hall, already
established at Chadbourn where he had been the local Negro
agent for Columbus County. Together these two of Browne's
men supervised the activities of 1,425 boys and girls, all but a
few of whom were raising corn or chickens.

S. G. Rubinow, the State Club Agent's assistant since late
1916, was slated to move in the fall of 1917 to the office of Direc-

Negro members were active canners by 1919. These girls used glass
jars and caps instead of tin cans.

38

tor of Extension B. W. Kilgore, there to undertake responsibility
for the higher development of all agricultural fairs in the state.
As such his work directly facilitated the exhibiting and judging
of various club commodities. By autumn's end that year, Pig
Club members, for example, had won more than $800 in fair
premiums, and rail car lots of club chickens had been shown at
the State Fair. Furthermore, Tar Heel Corn Club members were
invited to send 10-ear exhibits to the State Fair in Rubinow's
native state of Texas.

T. E. Browne's new Assistant Club Agent, the man Friday,
was W. Kerr Scott. His main job, however, was to set up the
enrollment for yet another line of work — the Grain Club. Scott's
employment had been financed by an emergency appropriation
of Congress; all boys and girls club work had been put on a war
basis in the early part of 1917, as a matter of fact. Black and
white rural youth were made to realize their great potential ser-
vice in food production, and girls in particular were inspired to
food conservation efforts in two senses; they were to put up
more home produce, and they were to learn more economical
uses of foods in the home. Wise Governor Thomas W. Bickett
appointed Mrs. McKimmon State Director of Home Economics
in addition to her other responsibilities. Since 1914 her work

A. G. Oliver poses beside coop with Durham County members and
leaders interested in poultry judging.

39

with women, in addition to girls, had been underway. But espe-
cially with the impetus of war preparedness, the number of
women under the home demonstration banner grew until it was
larger than the number of girls enlisted. Actual club enrollment
among boys in 1917 was not as large as for 1916, mainly
because the state club agents' sign-up campaign had made
completion of written records a condition of membership. After
the April 6 declaration of war, when all potential food producers
were urgently needed, it was too late to remove the earlier stipu-
lation. Nonetheless, many of the once wary boys signed up for
food production service during April and May.

This wonderful letter arrived unsolicited in the state club
office April 15, 1917:

Dear Club Agent: I am not fickle-minded and I don't
want to cause confusion in our club work. I am think-
ing of planting corn on my three acres and in the fall
sow it in wheat. Our country is calling for bread, and
I think it is the club member's duty to make all they
can on their club acres. I will tell you the responsibil-
ity that is resting on my shoulders, and you will know
how to advise me. My father is almost an invalid. I
am the oldest of seven children and I have got to
make a living for them. The farm is ours and I think
the ones who own the land are the ones to try the
hardest to make bread. Please give me your ideas
about it. This is something that has never come be-
fore, and we have got to do our best.

Yours truly,
G. R. Brown
Durham, North Carolina

Within the week Rubinow directly appealed by a letter
dated April 20 for rural leadership among boys and girls in
feeding their families and in signing up additional young club
members to do likewise. Sixteen year-old Snyder Richardson of
Union County responded by sending in a list of all the youth
living on his rural route. Mount Olive Pig Club member Charles
B. Vause supplied a list of his best friends to Rubinow's men,
and Horace Taylor of Weaverville wrote:

I am only eleven years old, and I don't know whether
I can feed a family of five; but I will do what I can. I

40

am a club boy aiming to raise corn, potatoes, and
beans. I have my corn land plowed. It was in crimson
clover and I nearly covered it with stable manure this
spring. I will plant in a few days.

Combined efforts by determined youth and concerned men
in Harnett County had prepared the way for the formation of
the Coats Jersey Breeders Association by the fall of 1917.
Twenty-seven registered Jerseys, belonging to boys, girls, and
several men had been purchased with money provided by Mr.
Patterson, the cashier of the Bank of Coats. Owen Odum, prin-
cipal of Coats Public School, had assisted R. H. Mason, one of
the State College dairy specialists, in selling the cattle shipped
in from Ohio. County Agent George Cole's part had been to
advise the new dairymen on fall and winter pasturing. This
complex cooperative venture, while the war may have propelled
it, was not the first instance of a bank in North Carolina mak-
ing a loan for club boys and girls. The Bank of Warrenton in
early 1916, for instance, had provided 19 Pig Club members
with registered Duroc-Jersey sows, each boy's note given for the
purchase price. No one knew then, however, the real value of
this kind of local support for club work.

Without being replaced as State Agent of these dynamic
Agricultural Club members, T. E. Browne in early 1917 had
become Supervisor of Vocational Education in North Carolina
public schools and professor of Vocational Education at State
College. His new work was under the Smith-Hughes Act of 1916,
a companion piece of legislation to Smith-Lever of 1914. How-
ever important the new work and his immense success in it may
have in time become — and it was considerable — his retreat
from effective leadership of the Agricultural Clubs at the outset
of American military participation in World War I was a stra-
tegic mistake, both for wartime productivity and for club
growth and welfare. Not until two years later, January 1919,
did a club agent, successor to busy Mr. Browne, take over in
Raleigh.

Besides assuming Browne's clerical chores of the spring of
1917, Rubinow was active in forming a Potato Club and helping
to coordinate the work of the existing plant and livestock club
agents. Prior to the agricultural fair season and his own trans-
fer, he took charge of the third annual State Short Course at-
tended by 600 boys and girls in August at State College. Federal

41

Club Agent I. W. Hill came from Washington to address the
young crowd on the topic "Club Work and Our Food Problem."
Everything and everyone fell in line on the subject of "Conser-
vation." Mr. Browne also attended, still bearing the title of
State Club Agent and speaking about feeding American fight-
ers. The separate club specialists had class sessions with their
declared members; selected county agents helped with the in-
struction. Catawba County Agent Homer B. Mask, for example,
led various poultry discussions, one of which was entitled "Arti-
ficial and Natural Incubation." Athletic exercises and timely
drills were led each morning by Raleigh Public Playgrounds
Supervisor C. H. McDonald.

It was Assistant State Agent Rubinow himself who ar-
ranged and led, in the long-range interest of club life, the most
vital session of this Short Course, however. On the evening of
the third day he introduced a model Boys' and Girls' Agricultu-
ral Club meeting, complete with officers, a leader, business to
conduct, a program of instruction, and recreation. Owen
Nichols presided; he was president of the Durham County Fed-
erated Agricultural Clubs. Rubinow was also assisted by other
members of actual clubs which he had been instrumental in
organizing since 1916 — coupling this improvement of club oper-
ations with an emphasis on good record keeping. The growing
war effort would hamper all of these sensible efforts to organize
the large Agricultural Club program, but the urgent mission of

These Lincoln County boys and girls in 1919 built this hog crate as
a camp project.

42

this important JShort Course session in August was still on the
mind of T. E. Browne when he composed the 1917 annual report
several months later:

It is still our hope and purpose to develop the com-
munity unit plan of club organization, and to that end
we have provided a space on the enrollment card for
each member to designate the school he attends, in
order that we may group the members around the
public schools as centers. We still feel that through
the rural schools we can more easily get in touch with
the boys and girls, and have prepared a circular letter,
with a blank for names, to be sent to every public
school in the state, by the County Agent. We have
adopted the plan of having the names returned to the
County Agent, rather than to this office, in order that
he may promptly get in touch in any way possible
with those desiring to become members. We believe
that this plan has the added advantage of making the
County Agent feel greater responsibility for the enroll-
ment, and also will make the boys look more to the
County Agent for leadership and instruction. This
can more easily be done now than heretofore because
of the fact that (due to the war) there is a county dem-
onstration agent in practically every county in the
state. An encouraging fact in connection with the club
work is that we find our club members actively identi-
fied with the various movements for the development
of rural life. Through the club work they are made to
feel that they are really a part of the community, and
through the community clubs they learn to participate
in the meetings and discussions.

What more sensible rationalization of the actual situation
could be envisioned? The country was at war; youth were in-
spired as never before to take a part in their society. The state
leadership of their organization was too busy to lead them,
however vital their agricultural production may be, and the
leader's assistants on the state level were subject to resign or to
transfer any day. A year earlier Browne, like Rubinow, had
wanted improved county organization of the clubs. He had writ-
ten to this effect in the January 8, 1916 EFN and, as follows, in
the annual report for that year:

43

In order that the supervising officers may render
more efficient service, and that rural leaders may be
developed among our boys and girls, we are endeavor-
ing to perfect definite organizations among the mem-
bers of the various clubs. It is the purpose to include
in the organizations members of all organized club
activities of the State. The clubs provide for the local
agents an opportunity to instruct the members with-
out having to visit them all individually. The mem-
bers elect the officers from among their number. A
monthly program, is prepared by the program commit-
tee, composed of the officers of the club, together with
the county superintendent of education, the county
farm demonstration and home demonstration agents.
Up to the present five county clubs and 25 local or
township clubs have been reported.

Whatever the county reaction at that comparatively peace-
ful time, it is clear that he and Mrs. McKimmon had come to an
understanding. Her 1916 report observed:

Thinking it advisable that the club girls and boys
should come together in community work, Mr. T. E.
Browne, State Agent for Boys' Clubs, has with the
cooperation of the Home Demonstration and the
Farm Demonstration agents, organized 25 agricultur-
al clubs, including in the membership canning club
girls and members of corn, pig, poultry, and all other
boys' clubs. These we hope to organize in every
county.

Browne's first reported success had been in Wayne County
where two township Agricultural Clubs were formed and in
Forsyth with one in the community of Clemmons. On May 12
and 13, 1916 joint Canning, Corn, and Pig Club sessions had
been held at the courthouse in Wadesboro. Anson County
agents J. W. Cameron and Rosaline Redfern arranged this pro-
gram in keeping with the cooperative agreement between
Browne and McKimmon, both of whom came and addressed the
boys and girls.

But by the end of 1917, Agricultural Club business in par-
ticular was two-fold and desperate: to mobilize for the war effort
was essential; and simultaneously the clubs had to save them-
selves by transferring the bulk of their operations to the county

44

and community level, with the local schools and county agents
taking greater club responsibility than ever before. It should be
pointed out that Browne's community school, organized club
drive (as opposed to assorted club members attending the same
school but not being organized) was to McKimmon's Canning
Club girls an old plan, indeed. For since 1912 it had been more
common for these girls to hold group meetings, especially dur-
ing the summer season, than for boys and girls in Agricultural
Clubs to do so.

Among Browne's thousands, with all due respect, actual
clubbing had hardly ever been realized except in the names of
statewide scope, such as the Pig Club. During school sessions
the different kinds of club work were conducted in class, not in
meetings as such. When scattered about the countryside after
the session ended, individual members were visited by state and
county agents or specialists. A teacher probably came by as
well in the capacity of a leader and inspected the corn or pigs or
chickens. The postal service also helped keep the loose organi-
zation alive; all agents thrived on franking. This privilege, per-
haps, was used to call attention to a county's summer roundup
of club members or the state Short Course; only a few of the
actual enrollment, however, were ever directly affected by either
event. EFN with its valuable contents had good club exposure
also. Yet the burden of the Agricultural Club work was individ-
ual or family centered; the social side of clubbing, regardless of
Browne's vision, was left alone. Mrs. McKimmon, on the other
hand, had always met her girls or had them met under routine
but enriching circumstances.

Of course her women agents and subagents went into white
or Negro homes to visit an individual member, too. But from the
start it was the group meeting which Mrs. McKimmon found
more efficient and more uplifting humanly. She was fond of
saying that she had witnessed the "power of Demonstration" in
these early meetings. She always likened those first ones of
1912 and 1913 to church meetings and recalled what fundamen-
tal issues had been touched upon. Wherever delivered, her own
"sermons" instilled the value of better food, better living, and a
broader vision of the world lying beyond the corn, cotton, and
tobacco fields. Her Canning Club curriculum gradually ex-
panded with equal method; from foods and nutrition to clothing
for the family, then from home improvement to home manage-
ment. It was her belief that this advance in subject matter,

45

roughly coincident with America's participation in World War I,
was exactly in the order of the girl or women's expenditure of
time and money in daily homemaking.

Perhaps it was through McKimmon's style of actual club
organization that Browne slowly realized the kind of organiza-
tion that his boys and girls needed. It is true too that McKim-
mon's style was always nearer the national club ideal; thus his
own plans may also have come directly from Washington.
Regardless, the community school plan had old North Carolina
roots. In 1912, for instance, in the Alamance community of
Hawfields, Mrs. Goodman, the Presbyterian preacher's wife,
had become this state's first local club leader by having the
community school girls take Friday afternoon cooking or can-
ning classes in her own home. The cooperative school principal
credited the girls with the meeting time. Mrs. Goodman, for her
part, used Fannie Farmer's standardized cookbook to demon-
strate to the girls both the utility and the art of food preparation
and processing. By 1914 the 37 Canning Club counties of the
state were highly organized. Each county had a chief agent;
subagents were em.ployed in areas of dense membership. In
Sampson County, for example, each of 18 townships had a club,
and every club had a supervisor. In 1914 there were, by con-
trast, 4,500 Corn Club members scattered over the state; 21 per-
cent of them sent reports to Raleigh. The next year, the mem-
bership was down to 3,505 in the Corn Club, but the number
reporting their results was up to 1,308, or nearly 38 percent. In
these two years, brothers Dudley and Ledford Hall of Rowan
County won the respective state contests. At least they were
well organized. The wartime need for Agricultural Club reor-
ganization became even more critical in late 1918 with Corn
Club Agent Robertson's decision to become Farm Agent in
Wayne County. Mr. Rubinow by then was almost completely
preoccupied with county, district, and state fairs; and Emer-
gency Club Agent Kerr Scott, the future governor and father of
another, went into the Army. Now completely absorbed in his
new vocational jobs, Mr. Browne was out of touch with the
clubs except for an occasional official signature or appearance.
He had come to view them as nothing more than existing kin-
dergartens for the growing popular interest in Vocational Edu-
cation. Of the experienced club staff left on the state level, only
Mr. Wray, his assistant L. E. Hall, and poultry specialist Allen
Oliver remained in place with dedication. There was swine spe-

46

cialist J. E. Moses also, but particularly had the war economy
shortened his club schedule, so much so that two new hands, J.
C. Anthony and W. W. Shay, were hired to stent him in work
with adults.

Needless to say, Browne's community Agricultural Club
hopes of 1917 were not realized in 1918 either. Before leaving
their respective posts, Robertson and Scott had jointly organ-
ized that year's abbreviated state Short Course for which spe-
cial sessions on keeping club records were planned and carried
out. The number of boys and girls that could be accommodated
was limited by a class of technicians which the Army also had
in training at State College that August. In a farsighted, related
attempt to save scarce paper and still reach the scattered mem-
bership, an "Agricultural Club Circular" had been published
that April. Its purposes were manifold. One was solicitation of
members with an application like the one described in the 1917
annual report. Another was a clarification of club regulations,
including the stipulation that all members must complete a pro-
ject record. Then came exact outlines of the most popular club
work— corn, poultry, and pig— followed by briefer mention of
nine additional areas. Oddly enough this 16-page circular no-
where mentioned the urgent need to organize actual local clubs
for the existing membership. We may conclude that Mr.
Browne, whose special idea this was, had had no hand in this
bulletin's preparation. I. W. Hill and C. L. Chambers, sensing
that the battle was being lost, came from Washington to assist
in rallying North Carolina club youth during late June and
early July. But this second year of alarm for the Agricultural
Clubs is not to be characterized by the contents of an emer-
gency bulletin or the names of Extension generals. More reveal-
ing are the cautious words of 4-year veteran John D. Wray. The
Farm Makers' Club Agent's portion of the 1918 annual report
began in this way:

This has been the most trying year since the begin-
ning of this work. There have been many things to
interfere, some of which were equally, if not more,
important than the clubwork, and by order of the
Director, received about the same attention. Personal
touch is the thing that counts, but the pressure
brought to bear in support of the various campaigns,
such as Liberty Bonds, War Savings Stamps, Red

47

Cross, United War Work, and the fighting of German
propaganda, prevented us from devoting as much
time as we wished to the club's work.
When the atmosphere cleared up from the above work,
influenza became epidemic [autumn, 1918], and abso-
lutely tied up everything for three months. All the
fairs were canceled, traveling was deemed inadvisable
because the people feared the presence of a stranger,
more especially those from quarantined cities. The
county, as well as State agents, were handicapped in
this respect. Many of the club members suffered from
the . . . disease, some fatally. Many of those who
escaped were impaired for work and could not gather
their crops. Therefore, we had to depend, for the most
part, upon estimation.

Perhaps the effort that succeeded best for Wray in 1918 was
"Uncle Sam's Saturday Service League." Its nearly 5,000 mem-
bers pledged to work Saturday afternoons until the war was
over. He observed, however, that "in view of the great food
problem facing the country these little patriots have continued
their work and are soliciting new members and sending me
their names daily."

Clearly the armistice of November 11, 1918 was not the end
of the food and health problems gripping North Carolina and
exposing the various clubs to their first real tests of adequacy.
Early in the year. Governor Bickett's proclamation calling the
reserves to the colors had included also a request that all boys
between the ages of 8 and 18 take part in the productive work of
the Agricultural Clubs. In a more receptive mood toward the
organized community club plan than previously, the assembled
county agents in February had pledged themselves to a 100 per-
cent increase in enrollment. In fact, approximately 20,000 boys
and girls were enlisted, but the credit was due largely to the
already proven confederates of club work, the rural teachers
and their county superintendents. (The national membership
climbed to 518,000 through similar efforts elsewhere.) Perhaps
the burdens of work with adult farmers explains the North
Carolina county agents' broken pledges of club support; the
position of assistant county agent had not evolved at that time.
Certainly the resignations from the state club staff, Mr.
Browne's consuming preoccupations with his new duties, and

48

Mask

the awful ravages of flu which

.^^L il^ ^ closed down not only fairs but

jHr ^1^ most schools as well meant that

mgr ^k however productive the kids of

^^ 1 1918 actually were, the cam-

II ■ 4»*,t paign to extend the community

club concept was not won. This
Hindenburg line of complica-
tions could not be broken.

Among Mrs. McKimmon's
people, as already related, there
had been an actual decrease in
effective club work among girls.
Yet on both the food and health
care fronts, her combined member-
ship of white and Negro girls
and women numbered over
21,000 in organized clubs. De-
spite the temporary curtailment
of traditional activities among
girls, the war demands and the seige of influenza, according to
the State Agent, were two unexpected yet fulfilled opportunities
for proving the worthiness of organizing rural communities in
home demonstration work.

The different sobering reports of 1918 still did not kill Mr.
Browne's intention to force county farm agents to organize his
club membership by communities. The most hopeful portion of
that annual report set forth his old plan with one important
new feature:

With the coming of the year 1919 the plan of reorgan-
ization contemplates a devotion of larger energies to
the development of the community club plan and Mr.
H. H. B. Mask, who comes into the service as assist-
ant State agent in farm demonstration work, with
extensive experience in the development of the com-
munity club idea, will prove invaluable in the putting
into effect this plan.

Catawba County had been the main setting of Homer
Mask's extensive community development experience. Among
other accomplishments he had organized and directed as
county agent not only clubs but also the Farm-Life School of

49

Newton in educational poultry work. Mr. Browne's worthy
thought concluded:

It is the positive conviction of those in charge that
with the extensive development of club work and the
enlarged duties of county agents, the ultimate success
of this activity is dependent upon a thorough devel-
opment of the organized community club, so that the
county agents, upon whom the organization of club
work is to be placed, can supervise and direct the club
work in these organized groups, rather than attempt-
ing to do it with individual members. Not only will
the organized community club plan greatly reduce the
demands upon the county agents' time, but it has the
additional benefit of developing the community idea
among the children and parents, developing leaders
for other community activities and forming the per-
manent community unit, through which our extension
activities may be directed.

These, at last, were T. E. Browne's final club words. They
describe sociology, and they specify for his long-overdue succes-
sor two primary tasks; the improvement of local club organiza-
tion and the placing of program control on the county level.
These state objectives were national goals also, having been
established at a meeting of northern and western state club
agents held in Washington, February 15-22, 1918. We see that
while he lost effective sight of the 4-H name and emblem after
1915, busy T. E. Browne did not lose complete touch with the
national club movement.

In January 1919 C. R. Hudson was still State Farm agent.
While Mr. Browne as State Club Agent had never been a direct
employee of Hudson, Homer Mask was hired as Assistant State
Farm Agent and Supervisor of Boys' Agricultural Clubs. This
administrative development by itself would improve Mask's
chances of cooperating with the county agents. Moreover, until
recently he had been one of them himself. There is no clear
indication, however, that the practical distance separating Jane
S. McKimmon and T. E. Browne would be lessened by the arri-
val of Homer Mask. McKimmon was State Home Demonstra-
tion Agent, and as such was on par with Mask's boss, her origi-
nal office mate. Her assistant on par with Mask was Laura M.
Wingfield. To assist Mask, Mr. Wray and Mr. Hall were still

50

devoted to Farm Makers' Club activities. Both J. C. Anthony
and J. E. Moses resigned during 1919 from the Pig Club agency,
leaving only W. W. Shay; but he, like Poultry Club veteran
Oliver, was now assigned to both adult and youth Extension in
Animal Industry. This culling of the state club staff is addi-
tional evidence that club work and county farm Extension work
were to be virtually synonymous in 1919. There were some
financial incentives for a contrary effort, however, since war
emergency appropriations continued in effect until June. These
funds in March enabled Mask to hire S. J. Kirby, an agrono-
mist, as state Plant Club agent.

Given Mask's own interests in poultry, it is not surprising
that the enrollment figures for 1919 indicate that Poultry Clubs
led, with Pig Club membership second, and Corn third. Out
front of all counties in project work was Catawba, which month-
ly marketed more than $30,000 worth of chickens and eggs. A
boxcar load of club products reached the State Fair from there.
Other good reports surfaced. The purebred sow and boar popu-
lation of the entire state reached into the thousands. At the
Onslow County Fair, the only registered, properly conditioned
hogs were shown by club boys and girls. Five members state-
wide produced an average of over 100 bushels of corn to the
acre; the state average yield was only 59 bushels among the
membership, but the Buncombe County Corn Club was far bet-
ter at 77 bushels. There were also Cotton Clubs whose reporting
members averaged 814 pounds of lint to an acre. Irish potatoes,
as well, had come through the war as a club commodity; in
Yancey County 272 bushels were harvested on an acre. Work
went on, too, in sweet potatoes, soybeans, wheat, peanuts,
sheep, and in beef and dairy calves. Total enrollment for Mask
in 1919 was 6,985.

Reporting for Negro Farm Maker's Clubs, Wray and Hall
identified 3,010 members, from 1,728 of whom they had received
varied reports, some complete, some not. Yet Agent Wray's tone
in summarizing the year's work was decidedly more positive
than in 1918: "The Negro boys' and girls' club work in North
Carolina is fulfilling the purpose for which it was intended. It is
revolutionizing the methods of farming among Negroes in
many sections of the State. The lectures given in connection
with meetings and demonstrations made by children in the
corn, pig, and poultry clubs and a comparison of the yield under
identically the same conditions, but by entirely different

51

methods of cultivation and fertilization, have made an indelible
impression upon the minds of adult farmers." Only 15 local
Negro agents were in place to assist Wray and Hall in their
youth activities, and many of these men served two or three
neighboring counties. For example, F. D. Wharton, located in
Henderson, had charge of farm demonstration among Negroes
in Vance, Warren, and Granville. Negro boys and girls state-
wide produced club commodities valued at almost $100,000,
despite the disadvantages which made organizing actual clubs
difficult if not impossible.

If we ignore the statistics of 1919 club productivity, the
organized community club plan had not worked well among
white youth and agents either. State Farm Agent Hudson com-
mended the new spirit of cooperation existing between certain
county agents and state specialists but also saw need for improve-
ment. It was Agricultural Club Supervisor Mask, however, who
spoke more specifically, directing the county agents' attention
to club songs and rural sociology.

At first glance these two themes of his annual statement
seem unconnected. He believed that certain songs would put
better agricultural principles into the minds of club members.
He also saw routine club work both as a forerunner for better
agriculture and agricultural methods and as a "wonderful fac-
tor in the life of a boy on the farm." Therefore, Mask concluded,
"club work should be made an essential part of county agent
work." He mentioned also the advantages for the agents, in
efficiency and in community development, arising in the organ-
ization of community clubs; but, he noted, "The task of organiz-
ing such clubs in each county . . . proved to be too great, with
our State force reduced, and the methods being new to many of
the agents." Mask did praise some of his county associates:

The following county agents were the most successful
in the organization of such clubs: C. C. Proffit of
Rutherfordton; W. L. Smarr of Lincoln; J. W. Bason of
Warren; U. A. Miller of Alexander; J. C. Anthony of
Harnett; R. D. Goodman of Cabarrus; F. G. Tarbox of
Halifax; W. G. Yeager of Davidson; M. W. Wall of
Northampton; E. S. Vanatta of Orange; D. L. Latham
of Onslow; N. K. Rowell of Chowan; and R. E. Law-
rence of Transylvania. Monthly meetings were held
for the study of literature and problems of club work
in general. These meetings offer great advantages in

52

a social way, as well as development in leadership.

(There is no clue why Catawba County was not on the list.)

Two features in addition to his belief in the educational
powers of song and the destiny of organized community clubs
deserve more than passing comment. One is the upgraded qual-
ity of agricultural fairs across the state, doubtless testimony to
the efforts of Mr. Rubinow and certainly an encouragement to
all club exhibitors. It seemed to Mask that the fairs' judging
contests were an aid in training boys and girls as well as a way
of illustrating to the public the widespread need for more agri-
cultural education and efficiency. The other feature of note took
up three sentences in the 1919 annual report; yet for what they
introduced into club life, even the separate words were monu-
mental: "During the year, 20 or more county encampments were
held. These encampments were from 2 to 3 days duration. The
boys and girls were brought together in this way for recreation,
inspiration and instruction."

According to EFN, July 19, 1919, the first of these camps
was scheduled July 21 through 24 in Warren County. In the
Warren Record for July 25 ran the following account of this
unprecedented adventure in North Carolina club life.

Camp Outing Great

Moving Pictures Please and

Games Furnish Fun

State Representatives, County Agents

and Assistants

Spend Four Days Profitably at the

Graham High School

Numbers of Warren county young people have
had a delightful outing and learned many valuable
lessons concerning the problems of life from a camp-
ing trip at the Graham Academy this week. The rain
made the trip to Amos Mill, the camp site, an impos-
sibility, but the program was carried thru perfectly
here and every minute given over to one form of activ-
ity or another.

County Home Demonstration Agent Miss Annie
Lee Rankin, Farm Agent J. W. Bason assisted by Mrs.
W. D. Rodgers, Jr., Miss Lottie Bell, Miss Dora Beck,

53

Mr. W. A. Connell and several State workers includ-
ing Mr. J. C. Black, Mr. Sam Kir by, and Mrs. Mattie
Henley have guided the activity of those present
toward constructive citizenship.

Moving pictures by Mr. J. C. Black, Bureau of
Community Service, were the source of much pleasure
Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Not only did the
members of the camping party witness the films but
many citizens of the town enjoyed this distinctively
educational feature. Tuesday night educational and
comedy films were shown. Wednesday night was
given over to a presentation of ^'America's Answer"
and a reel of comedy.

The girls of the party have been cooking and a
word picture of the menu tells of fried chicken, ham,
eggs, cake, and sandwiches. Watermelon and ice
cream have also been served. Each member of the
party brought a chicken, a dozen eggs, and a cake as
well as two dollars in cash, and this has provided a
menu delicious and abundant.

All the lecturers were delivered in the Academy
except a talk and demonstration of '^Shampooing"
which was given in the Sanitary Barber Shop by Mrs.
S. J. Burrows. Interest in all the lecturers has been
good and the occasion which ended Thursday, in the
opinion of the agents, has been one much enjoyed and
of great worth.

Mrs. Dora Beck greatly pleased the party by giv-
ing several stories and Mrs. W. D. Rodgers devoted
her time and ability to teaching singing. Games of
every description also came in for great popularity.

A study of the program will be interesting.

MONDAY, JULY 21

12:00 noon Lunch
1:00 p.m. Getting Camp in order
6:00 p.m. Supper
7:30 p.m. Welcome-County Agent
8:15 p.m. Songs and games
9:30 p.m. Taps

54

TUESDAY, JULY 22
6:00 a.m. Reveille
7:30 a.m. Breakfast

9:00 a.m. Chickens and cracked corn — Mr. Mask
10:00 a.m. The Two Additional H's — Mr. Mask
11:00 a.m. Recreation

11:15 a.m. Manual Training — Boys — Bason,
Mask, Kirby

A Study in Clothes — Girls —
Mrs. Henley
12:30 p.m. Dinner
1:30 p.m. Good Manners — Miss Rankin
2:30 p. 7n. Recreation
6:00 p.m. Supper

7:00 p.m. A Study in Nature — Mr. Kirby
8:30 p.m. Moving Pictures
10:00 p.m. Taps

WEDNESDA Y, JUL Y 23
6:00 a.m. Reveille
7:30 a.m. Breakfast
10:00 a.m. Our Sunday School — Mr. J. Edward

Allen
11:00 a.m. Recreation

11:15 a.m. Manual Training — Boys — Bason,
Mask, Kirby

Pine Needle Basketry — Girls
12:30 p.m. Dinner
1:30 p.m. Why I joined the Club — Club Mernbers
2:30 p.m. Shampoo and care of hair — Mrs. S. J.

Burrows
6:00 p.m. Supper

VISITING NIGHT

7:30 p.m. Program by Girls and Boys
8:30 p.m. Moving Pictures
10:00 p.m. Taps

THURSDAY, JULY 24
6:00 a.m. Reveille
7:30 a.m. Breakfast

55

8:30 a.m. Care of nails and manicure — Miss Rankin
10:00 a.m. Recreation
11:00 a.m. Rustic Furniture — Boys

How to beautify your rooms — Girls —
Mrs. Henley
12:30 p.m. Dinner
2:00 p.m. Break Camp

Those present were: Arline Geohegan, Elizabeth
Powell, Wyatt Duncan, Herbert Haithcock, Keeling
Hardy, Cecil Pope, Charles Jones, Elizabeth and
Roberta Williams, Charles Davis, John Newell, Jr.,
James Connell, Hattie and Norma Connell, Jeff Ter-
rell, Elizabeth Rooker, Helen Rodgers, and Alice Bob-
bitt. State Department representatives, the Home and
Farm Agents and assistants were present throughout
the camp.

Those in charge greatly appreciate the use of the
Academy and the many courtesies extended to make
the occasion a success.

It was not the size of the gathering or the weather condi-
tions that mattered chiefly. It was the cooperativeness— among
the county agents and town's people as well as State Club
Agent Mask, his assistant S. J. Kirby, and one of Mrs. McKim-
mon's district agents, Mrs. Henley. That the entire camp was
mindful of 4-H is clear from Homer Mask's Tuesday morning
discussion entitled "The Two Additional H's." His concentra-
tion would have been on Heart and Health. Borne out by the
other adults in recreation and manual training classes as well
as in the clothing, manicure, and hair care demonstrations; the
whole clover flourished. The boys and girls were given their
parts to perform also. J. Edward Allen, who came on Wednes-
day morning for a devotional period, was the newly appointed
Superintendent of Warren County Schools. It had been his sup-
port of the camping idea that saved the day when midsummer
rains made the original tent camp at Amos Mill impractical.
And he was not the only Warrenton resident who took part in
this historic outing. When the four busy days were over, the
girls carried home much more than their pine needle baskets,
we can be sure. The boys, on the other hand, probably carried
the baskets for them.

56

History should take note of one additional instance of friend-
ship in this Warren County camp. Miss Rankin, the Home
Agent, was a steadfast friend of youth. It was she who had
helped to seal a future in the initial Canning Clubs in Guilford
County in the summer of 1911. During the more recent war and
flu epidemic, she had come temporarily from Warrenton to
Raleigh, at Mrs. McKimmon's request, to operate the im-
provised diet kitchen in a large emergency hospital for young
soldiers and students. Inaugurating the North Carolina 4-H
Camping Program did not seem one step out of her destined
line.

In contrast to the approximately 20 encampments noted by
Homer Mask, 44 similar outings in which fun and work had
been combined were recorded by Mrs. McKimmon. (Doubtless
some home and farm agents had reported the same camp.) Joint
encampments by several counties she also noted; one for Nor-
thampton, Hertford, and Bertie had gathered in early August at
Chowan College at Murfreesboro; in the same area where a
decade before the first sanctioned club for North Carolina's
rural boys had been organized, club camping was now taking
hold. According to Northampton Home Agent Sarah Padgett:

There were one hundred girls and one hundred boys
present. . . . The college was turned over to us and we
carried our own food. Each child was given a list of
just what he or she should bring, and from these
supplies we enjoyed many a camping meal as well as
those in the dining hall. Each day the girls had les-
sons in cookery, millinery, basketry, and canning,
and in the afternoons indulged in swimming in the
nearby streams, or in games. The evenings were de-
voted to joint programs, including lectures, music, pic-
tures, and an amateur play.

At these first camps the joys of music were combined with
the more instructive pleasures of club songs. Agricultural senti-
ments were inculcated as the campers generated a new identity
as club members. In recognition of this development. Mask
printed eight stanzas of the "Boys' Agricultural Clubs Song" in
his 1919 report. The songwriter was Mr. Hudson, and his composi-
tion, known also as the "4-H Live at Home Song" and simply as
the "Club Song," honored the memory of Dr. Knapp and taught
the boys and girls to do likewise.

57

At least one other man on the Extension staff had written a
song to go with his work. The following powerful lyrics by
Negro Assistant Club Agent L. E. Hall appeared in this same
annual publication:

Some say we should make money
And buy our home supplies,
But experience and science both teach us
They would deceive with lies.

We'll grow our home supplies;

We'll grow our home supplies;

We never expect to give the struggle over,

But grow our home supplies.

Specially conceived lyrics of this kind had first surfaced
among Mrs. McKimmon's forces during the summer of 1915. It
may have been a composition of Mrs. E. E. Balcomb of Greens-
boro that inspired both Hudson and Hall. Called "It's a Caro-
lina Farm for Me," this piece was first sung by Canning Club
Agents in training at Woman's College that June. At the joint
Wadesboro school for Canning and other club girls and boys in
May 1916 a slightly revised version was sung by members as
the club song. Its widest distribution came later, however, on
the inside cover of the famous 4-H canning and preserving cir-
cular of 1918. The song's originality, in both its clever wording
and its uniqueness in club affairs for the state as well as the
nation, warrants its inclusion here. It would be 1927, by con-
trast, before Fannie R. Buchanan, rural sociologist from Iowa,
published "Dreaming," her initial song for 4-H girls. Her popu-
lar "Plowing Song" for boys, calling further attention to 4-H
music, soon followed, making possible the first National
4-H Song Book in 1929. More than a decade earlier. Tar Heel
club members had been singing this song and spreading it in a
circular all around the country:

IT'S A CAROLINA FARM FOR ME

In North Ca-ro-li-na we live well,

Tho war makes prices high;
For we can raise what we can eat.

And we don't have to buy;
Hoo-oo-ray! Hoo-oo-rayl Oh, we don't have to buy;
For we can raise what we can eat.

And we don't have to buy.

58

CHORUS

Hoo-oo-ray! Hoo-oo-ray! For crop di-ver-si-ty!

The Tar-heel can Hve well,

Tho he neither buy nor sell.
IT'S A CAROLINA P^ARM P^OR ME!

And we can eat what we can raise,

And we don't have to sell;
So, if they won't buy cotton crops,

Why, let them go a spell.

Hoo-oo-ray! Hoo-oo-ray! Oh we don't have to sell;
So, if they won't buy cotton crops.

Why, let them go a spell.

And we can can what we can't eat.

Can eat what we can can.
"We can," 's the plan. We plan to can.

We can! We can! We can!
Hoo-oo-ray! Hoo-oo-ray! Can eat what we can can.
"WE CAN," 's the plan. We plan to can.

WE CAN! WE CAN! WE CAN!

The CANNING GIRLS AND CORN CLUB BOYS

Will make the State our pride,
When they have shown what can be grown

With crops DI-VER-SI-FIED.
Hoo-oo-ray! Hoo-oo-ray! Will make the State our pride,
When they have shown what can be grown

With crops DI-VER-SLFIED.

Although the concluding theme of this song is crop diversi-
fication, the union of McKimmon's girls and the Corn Club
boys in the last stanza's first line was a good sign for the future.
When these lyrics were first printed as sheet music, probably in
1918, another good sign for the slowly coming times appeared
on the back cover. The unknown printer spaced four large H's
as if each one were centered on one of four clover leaves. There
was no clover in the design, however. Given the comparatively
low profile of the 4-H emblem during these years of stress, even
this approximation of the accepted symbol seems significant.

In May 1919, as a result of a February conference of Home
and Farm Agents, a bulletin entitled "Suggested Community
Club Programs" had been issued by the Division of Home Dem-
onstration Work. It contained the text of four songs, "Who Won
the War?," "The Lay of the Hen That Lays," "Keep the Club

59

Work Growing," and "The Farmer Feeds Them All." In addi-
tion there was a list of 34 books containing more songs, plus
games, dances, stories, and popular plays for young people.

In fact, this late-winter joint conference had had a much
larger purpose than simply providing songs and other enter-
tainment or recreation for members of the proposed community
clubs: rural men and women were to be organized in the same
movement. Thus this bulletin which grew out of the conference
included an outline for community club programs suitable for
adults as well as youth. A model constitution and by-laws for
each proposed organization stipulated that "any interested com-
munity man, woman or child" was eligible for membership and
that sociability, neighborliness, and cooperation were objectives
equal in importance with the demonstration of better methods,
conservation, and community improvement.

Plans were established for the different age groups and
sexes to meet both together and separately. The useful bulletin
even went one step further and supplied the rural citizens with
11 complete community club programs. With specific choices
left to local people, each program called for several songs. Two
of these outlines will illustrate the spirit and value of this new
cooperative undertaking.

COMMUNITY CLUB PROGRAM: I

Subject: "Some of the Things Extension

Work Has Done."

1. Business meeting.

2. Song - "Canning Club Song" - Girls.

3. Story — Achievements of Our Club Girls — Club
member.

4. What Home Demonstration Work did for one
woman — Club Woman.

5. Song.

6. The success of one corn or pig club member —
Club boy.

7. What Farm Demonstration Work has done for
our county — Local man.

8. Planting and planning for canning — Club girl.

9. Discussion: Home waterworks and the supply for
family, stock, hogs, and poultry.

10. Song — "Work for the Night is Coming."

60

COMMUNITY CLUB PROGRAM: II

Business Meeting.

1. Song.

2. Current events.

3. Recitation — Club boy dressed in overalls.

4. What and how I feed my pig — Club girl.

5. A Legacy for Your Children — Reading by club
woman. {Progressive Farmer, May 11, page 26.)

6. Why Johnnie Left the Farm — Club boy.

7. Hog Cholera: How to prevent and what to do in
case of an outbreak — Club man.

8. The family garden — Club woman.

9. Discussion: Shall This Community Have a Fair?
10. Community Singing.

"Give your message to the people as a whole, and not indi-
viduals. Organized effort makes for strength." This was the
underlying reasoning of the women who put this material to-
gether. No one should ask why it was to the women agents that
Extension turned for this important job. It was they who knew
best about community club organization and development in
North Carolina. In 1915, for example, had appeared the first
edition of their circular entitled "Plan for Community Club
Work in the Study of Foods and Household Conveniences." (Its
author was Minnie L. Jamison, McKimmon's second assistant.)
The range of the new vision was revealed by the fact that not
state staffers but home agents in Davidson, Catawba, and
Transylvania counties did most of the 1919 writing. Mattie
Henley, the avid camper on McKimmon's enlarged state staff of
six, served as editor.

Community organization, of course, was also one of Homer
Mask's chief interests. It is clear from the pages oi EFN that his
recent arrival on the state club scene did not hamper him. In
March he reported that boys doing poultry work in the Nor-
thampton community of Seaboard had proven one of his first
pronouncements: that club work was not only educational but
good business experience as well. The Canning Club girls had
long since proved this with their standard 4-H brands. Now the
Seaboard boys had supplied themselves with letterhead station-
ery, an asset in their business of shipping eggs by rail to a large
distributor in Norfolk. A second activity to which Mask pointed
with a keen sense of community pride was the May 1919 victory

61

Setting up exercises for boys at the 1916 State College Short Course.

parade in Lexington, an event in which the boys and girls car-
rying club banners far outnumbered the soldiers who were
returning to their Davidson County communities from Europe.
John D. Wray was also community-minded as never before; in a
June issue of EFN he supplied human interest accounts of a
number of Negro community functions.

The cooperative community club adventure with the farm
agents did not mean another abatement in McKimmon's cus-
tomary club work with girls, such as the war had caused. For
the year 1919 she reported 411 girls' clubs, compared to 653
clubs for women, in addition to 226 of the new community clubs.
The club curriculum for girls was widening everywhere. In Lin-
coln County the home agent enrolled 175 girls in a successful
biscuit campaign. A more customary kind of work, poultry,
caught on as never before among other girls; a total of 1,966
belonged to nearly 200 such clubs in 34 counties. Mr. Oliver, the
seasoned poultry specialist, had simply found 34 receptive home
agents in counties whose farm agents were not ready, or will-
ing, or able to cooperate with him. Joint county work did hatch
in places. At the State Fair, for example, Anson County mem-
bers, who were encouraged by their home and farm agent, won
almost $75 in premiums. Gardening, canning, and preserving
still did well, too. Two hundred seventy-two girls were virtually

62

self-supporting as a result. Club butter and cheese also began to
appear on the market and at fairs in the fall.

Another thing to be learned from the summer of 1919 was
more directly related to the camp spirit. What was the effect of
organized camping by counties on statewide short courses? The
Agricultural Clubs had been gathering hundreds of boys and a
few girls in Raleigh since 1915. The annual report of 1919 pro-
vided a brief answer to the new question: "During August, the
Boys' State Short Course was held at West Raleigh, at which
one hundred and twenty-five boys from various parts of the
State were present." Fewer boys had never been registered, and
not a single girl seems to have been expected. In 1915, by con-
trast, there had been 222 boys and one girl; on July 22, 1916
their picture had been used in EFN to promote 1916's course.
The attendance that second year of 355 boys and girls was
probably a national record, broken by the 600 boys and girls
who showed up at State College in August 1917. One possible
explanation for this large turnout is that in June Mr. Rubinow
had announced that Mrs. McKimmon's Canning Club girls
were extended a cordial invitation to the 1917 course. In the face
of this unexpected crowd. President Riddick of the College had
commented that the campus existed to serve and that "the
greater it grows the more responsibility it assumes." The 1918

l!ffW

\

Club members board the cars for a tour of Raleigh during the 1917
meeting.

63

gathering of Agricultural Club boys and girls, as earlier stated,
was necessarily limited to 387 to make way for military classes.
While the new club camping experience plus the war dis-
locations cut into the size of the 1919 State Short Course, the
organization of the actual event, more than any previous
course, illustrated the new role of the counties in the state club
plan. County agents, for example, were drafted for large scale
committee service as the following chart demonstrates:

SHORT COURSE ORGANIZATION

C. R. Hudson, State Agent

H. H. B. Mask, Assistant State Agent,

Supervisor Club Short Course

SUBJECT-MATTER AND CLASS SUPERVISORS

A. G. Oliver, State Poultry Club Agent,

W. W. Shay, State Pig Club Agent

S. J. Kirby, Specialist in Plant Clubs, Crops, and Soils

SHORT COURSE INSTRUCTORS

W. F. Pate, Agronomist J. P. Pillsbury, Horticulturist

V. R. Herman, Agronomist S. G. Rubinow, Director of

R. Y. Winters, Agronomist Fairs

E. R. Raney, Farm Machinery Specialist

COUNTY AGENT ASSISTANTS

C. C. Proffitt J. R. Sams

J. A. Arey E. D. Bowditch

C. E. Miller E. F. Fletcher

C. L. Gowan J. C. Anderson

J. C. Phelps C. S. McLeod

N. E. Winters J. P. Kerr

G. D. Burroughs W. G. Yeager

O. O. Dukes E. S. Vanatta

E. W. Gaither D. S. Coltrane

Zeno Moore J. W. Cameron

E. D. Weaver J. C. Anthony

E. S. Millsaps, District Agent, in Charge Registration, Room
and Class Assignments.

COUNTY AGENT ASSISTANTS

S. R. Bivins R. W. Johnson

64

E. S. Millsaps, Jr. F. G. Tarbox, Jr.
J. H. Speas J. W. Goodman
J. E. Chandler N. K. Rowell
Jesse Murray J. P. Herring

COUNTY AGENT ASSISTANTS

John Deal Z. T. Koonce

Frank Fleming R. W. Pou

R. K. Craven R. M. Digney

R. T. Melvin R. D. Goodman

H. L. Miller R. L. Edwards

O. W. Colhns W. H. Chamblee

J. L. Holliday M. W. Mackie

J. E. Dodson

J. M. Gray, Manager, Play and Recreational Activities

N. B. Stevens, District Agent, Supervisor Play Leaders

Byron O. Lutman, Boys' Work Director, City Y.M.C.A. Instructor

COUNTY AGENT ASSISTANTS

W. L. Smarr C. H. Stanton

R. L. Hough R. W. Gray

U. A. Miller H. E. Nelson

J. L. Thurman J. W. Bason

G. W. Falls J. L. Dove

J. W. Nyegaard F. E. Patton

B. T. Ferguson R. V. Hood

J. C. Brammer H. L. Boyd

M. G. James J. W. Lindley
J. W. Williamson

O. F. McCrary, District Agent, Supervisor Song and Yell Lead-
ers, P. W. Price, Instructor

COUNTY AGENT ASSISTANTS

F. S. Walker J. T. Lazar

R. R. Mclver A. K. Robinson

S. S. Stabler M. W. Wall

D. W. Roberts R. E. Lawrence

A. G. Hendren J. H. Hampton

W. F. Reece J. A. Goodwin

L. W. Anderson H. S. Pool

D. L. Latham C. A. Ledford

A. M. Johnson R. P. McCracken

F. H. Jeter, Agricultural Editor, Official Photographer for Short
Course

65

As Catawba Farm Agent, Homer Mask had assisted with
the 1917 Short Course himself. Of special importance in his
1919 plan was O. F. McCrary's committee of Song and Yell
Leaders. They were the cheerleaders. The instructor, P. W.
"Daddy" Price, was a young faculty member who later became
the first director of the N. C. State College Band. James M.
Gray headed up another important short course activity that
was closely related to camping activities: play and recreation.
Gray was Farm Agent for the Mountain District, which led the
state in number of organized Agricultural Clubs.

The examination of this duty roster for the 1919 Short
Course invites also a brief inquiry into these arrangements for
previous years. In 1915 the club course at the College was in
keeping with 13 county schools arranged during the early sum-
mer, all meant to instruct club members in the fundamental
principles of plant, animal, and poultry production. In Raleigh,
according to T. E. Browne, "The forenoons of each day were
devoted to lectures by members of the college faculty and Experi-
ment Station and State Department of Agriculture staffs, and
the boys were given a taste of real college life. The afternoons
were devoted to excursions over the college and Experiment
Station farms, and to trips over the city as guests of the City of
Raleigh. The evenings were given over to illustrated lectures on
agricultural subjects." For 1916 the members were organized
into 10 companies, with one of the older boys as captain of each
company. "The work was arranged so as to have the boys
divided into sections, and the entire agricultural faculty, to-
gether with several of the teachers of agriculture in farm-life
schools, was utilized in the teaching of these boys. The fore-
noons were devoted to instruction, the afternoons to judging
and trips of observation, and the evenings to entertainment."
That experimentation in both organization of the crowd and use
of time was a part of the yearly process is obvious. 1917 offered
another possibility. Three farm life teachers; three members of
the Class of 1918 at the College; and two older Corn Club
members, Owen Nichols of Durham County and Bill Hicks, had
charge of the crowd of 600 divided into seven sections. The vital
substance of this wartime course, with more county agents tak-
ing active part, has been discussed already, as has the abbre-
viated 1918 version, when "club members were organized into
groups, with county agents in charge of the various groups and

66

county agents and other extension specialists teaching them."
Thus by 1919 the organization of the state Short Course primar-
ily for boys had been worked out, but the gradual surge of atten-
tion given in Raleigh to club recreation had also given birth to
county camps where organized play, not study, had first
priority.

It was also in 1919 that Mrs. McKimmon, assisted by East-
ern District Agent Cornelia Morris, arranged the initial state
Short Course for a selected few of her club girls. With her char-
acteristic belief in slow growth and expansion of any Extension
program, McKimmon had held all earlier courses on the local or
county level. Given the novelty of a statewide course for girls,
therefore, it would be unsound to explain her low attendance by
pointing to the new and popular fulfillment of county club
camping. Mrs. McKimmon wrote: "The first special short course
for club girls held at the North Carolina College for Women
began September 8th and ended September 13th. The attend-
ance of 18 would have been trebled could it have been held ear-
lier." The organizational as well as the instructional and recrea-
tional features already pointed out in the most recent short
courses held at State College, this daily outline of the Greens-
boro course reflects:

8:30 - 10:00 Cookery, Section I

8:30 - 10:00 Sewing, Section II
10:00 - 11:30 Cookery, Section III
10:00 - 11:30 Sewing, Section I
12:00 - 12:20 Personal Hygiene, Tuesday to Friday, Inclusive

2:00 - 3:30 Millinery, Tuesday to Friday, Inclusive

3:30 - 4:30 Basketry, Tuesday and Wednesday

3:30 - 4:15 House Decoration, Thursday and Friday

4:30 - 6:00 Recreation, games, songs and yells.

Both county home agents and instructors from Woman's Col-
lege did the teaching. On the opening evening. Professor
Brown, Director of Music at that College, directed community
singing. Later evenings there were two moving picture shows
and a stunt night.

One way of assessing the entire summer's varied club pro-
grams in 1919 is to say that considerably more campers spent a
week at Chowan College's tri-county encampment than at-
tended the combined state Short Courses at State and Woman's

67

College. There is no factual error in this statement, but it prob-
ably misrepresents the main point. If county home and farm
agents were ever to take chief responsibility for the club organi-
zation, instructional and recreational county camps were ini-
tially more important achievements than short courses at the
state level, the county roles in the Raleigh and Greensboro
events notwithstanding. Thus in the first year of the widely
sung club songs and the popular county club camp, certain
counties had, perhaps unwittingly, worthily celebrated the end
of North Carolina's first decade of work in rural youth clubs.
Looked at from our perspective, however, 1919 was not even
half way along the tedious way from 1915 to 1925.

While World War I's emergency appropriations had pro-
vided funds for increasing all county Extension services for
whites and Negroes alike, by war's end the actual momentum,
disregarding the level of funding, was with programs for white
adults. Rural adults, both black and white, were more receptive
than ever before to Extension. There were a number of reasons;
two can be mentioned here. If science had been the answer to
increased productivity and conservation during the war, why
not follow science to prosperity in peace? Those whose weapons
had been plows or pressure canners and sealing irons for a cou-
ple of seasons were not ready to give up their personal struggle
after the military armistice. Moreover, during the war, a major-
ity of the first members in all kinds of rural youth clubs had
reached adulthood. Extension's pup farmers, for instance, had
become war dogs. Having been reared to respect an agent's
advice, they now expected continued assistance. With the cut-
ting back of state and county staffs, therefore, the various
youth clubs could expect only the scraps of an agent's time. In
plainer terms, membership in all of the clubs declined as the
number of professional workers settled to the lower post-war
level.

There is another reason for pausing at the threshold of 1920
in our search for the popular realization of 4-H in name and
emblem. Up to that time in North Carolina, undoubtedly the
largest membership in any separate club had belonged to the
Corn Club. And certainly that work had recently done its share
and more in the provision of vital feed and food. The cribs of
Carolina had been filled many times. But of all club work. Corn
Club work was also probably the most misguided, the falsest in
educational terms. Among others, I. O. Schaub eventually rec-

68

ognized it as such. After the crop was harvested, for example,
and the yield and cost were recorded, the things chiefly cele-
brated were the most beautiful ears. Thousands of boys here
and elsewhere must have spent literally thousands of hours
both seeking the stellar ears and rating corn show entries in
terms of beauty alone. But would the ear of corn scoring the
highest on the corn score card necessarily make the best seed
corn? "When some of the doubters," Schaub wrote, "tried it out
by comparing under uniform conditions seed from low scoring
ears with those having a high score it was found there was not
really much correlation and gradually that type of corn show
passed into history." That day had not arrived in most of North
Carolina by 1920, however. This fact must be kept in mind by
those who wonder why many club veterans actually needed
continued attention from farm agents as adults. On the other
hand, this old criticism of the Corn Club never meant that all
educational features of this particular club were suspect. For
several early years, as already shown, the white club boys pro-
ducing the top three corn yields in North Carolina had been
given scholarships to N. C. State by the State Board of Agricul-
ture and the Hastings Seed Company of Atlanta.

Herman Peebles in his field of championship com that won him a club
scholarship to A&T.

69

The year 1916 had seen two corn champions among the
state's club members for the first time. Herman Peebles, a Wake
County Negro, won an A&T College scholarship valued at $50;
the College Alumni Association was the donor. The other
winner was Allison Overman, a white youth from Wayne
County. His yield of corn produced for him, not a scholarship,
but a certificate of merit signed by Governor Bickett, a gold
medal donated by The Progressive Farmer, and an assortment
of trees and plants given by two different nurseries.

In the midst of 1919's deluge of club activities, too late for
that year's corn crop, appeared a bulletin entitled "Growing
Corn." It made, for instance, better sense out of seed selection.
Its author was Mask's Plant Club agent S. J. Kirby, hired in
March. It was May before he got the bulletin done; and before
the 1920 crop was in the ground, Kirby had resigned, going in
February to be Farm Agent in his native Johnston County.
There was no money in Raleigh to hire a replacement. It was up
to Kirby's bulletin to cover the state, and that was, in fact, the
new Extension idea.

Mask's annual report for 1920 opened in exactly that frame
of reference:

The work has been conducted as a county agent proj-
ect as heretofore. The county agent has supervision of
the work in the county. This office and the specialists
have rendered such assistance as requested, and have
promoted the best interest of the work.

As an illustration of his promotion of the "best interest of
the work," the State Club Supervisor, in place of last year's club
song, inserted next in his text the following plan of work which
he had distributed to all county farm agents in January.

Suggested County Plan of Work
for Boy's and Girls' Clubs

Scope

1. (a) A minimum of six communities should be organized with

a total minimum membership of seventy-five.

Projects

2. (a) As few lines of work or projects as possible should be

used,
(b) Five or more members in a club should be engaged in the
same project.

70

Organization

3. (a) Each community should be organized into a club with the

following officers: President, vice president, secretary-
treasurer, and local leader.

(b) The local leader should be an adult especially interested
in boys and girls and willing to devote some time in
assisting the agent in directing club work in the com-
munity.

(c) Local leaders should be instructed through personal calls,
letters, bulletins, and special meetings.

(d) Each club, when organized, should be reported imme-
diately to the state office.

(e) Literature for members should be sent to the local leader
for distribution.

Meetings

4. (a) A minimum of one meeting a month should be held.

(b) Meetings should be both educational and social.

(c) Each member should report from his record book work
accomplished from one meeting to another. (This will
encourage the keeping of records.)

(d) At least one letter or bulletin or both should be furnished
each member monthly.

(e) The important phases of each project should be demon-
strated by the agent, specialist, or local leader.

5. There should be one county club encampment.

6. All members should show their club products at the county
fair.

7. Each club should send at least one representative to the
State Short Course.

8. Where possible a car of club exhibits should be sent to the
State Fair.

9. All records should be in the county agent's office not later
than November 15.

10. Funds should be provided to award the club emblem to each
member completing the work in a creditable way.

The word "projects" came into the Tar Heel club vocabulary
with this plan. Prior to this time, a member's yearly work in
poultry, for instance, had been exclusively called a poultry
demonstration, an indication that the work was an extended
demonstration of the best current methods in the specialist's or
agent's literature. It would be several years before this new
usage took root. Also the term "local leader," through this plan,

71

began to replace older terms like "club adviser" and "sub-
agent."

This outline, in short, was the national club plan in com-
plete form. It had not appeared in its full light in North Caro-
lina before 1920, although both Browne and McKimmon had
made some use of it. The "club emblem" referred to in item 10 is
the 4-H emblem. Given the wholeness of the plan and the period
of preparation preceding its wide distribution, we can under-
stand Mask's disappointment when only 43 farm agents under-
took its implementation in their counties. Still worse, only 36 of
these men reported results to Raleigh, and of those reporting,
only 23 counties had at least one organized club, for a grand
total of 121. Mrs. McKimmon had had more in 1914! One rea-
son, Mask recognized, was the heavy workload of the county
agents. Another problem with his club enrollment was the tra-
ditional enrollment period, the early spring. To see if this diffi-
culty could be overcome, he got the cooperation of agents in
Swain, Graham, Jackson, Avery, and Buncombe counties and
made a membership drive in November and December for the
following season. Their results convinced Mask that between
Thanksgiving and Christmas was the proper time to organize
community clubs for the future.

There were other happy developments during that year. In
May 1920 the state office of club work in Raleigh announced the
first issue of Tar Heel Clubs News, a 4-page sheet devoted
entirely to the activities of the boys and girls in the various
clubs. One of its purposes, to a greater extent than EFN, was to
take the place of circulars and timely announcements. In addi-
tion, the club paper planned to print "stories of achievement,
extracts of club work from other states, and items to stimulate
interest in club work." Not until 1922 would a national club
news sheet begin publication in Chicago.

One of the themes of the work across this state in both of its
Extension papers during 1920 was "How to Keep the Boys on
the Farm." Evidence of this campaign's success came even from
counties in which no farm agent was employed. County Agent
Sams of Polk, crossing one day a corner of Henderson County,
was flagged down by six boys who wanted him to sign them up
for club work. He did so and forwarded the enrollment card to
Homer Mask in Raleigh. Elsewhere a 15-year old boy had even
more initiative. He typed on a postal card: "Pig Club Agent,
West Raleigh, N.C. Dear Sir: Please send me information about

72

the Pig Club, as there is no agent in this county. Yours truly,
Paul Tugman. Zionville, North Carolina, February 12, 1920.
P.S. My County is Watauga."

Equally satisfying for the North Carolina Club Supervisor
was the continuation of club encampments. They had been
mentioned as item number 5 in the circulated plan of work for
1920. Of the 25 organized counties reporting to Mask, at least 20
had held one camp. One county undertook two: in every case the
outing was held within the county. Mask had on hand 10 army
surplus tents which he put on loan to the counties who re-
quested them. These remnants of the recent war were home for
two or three days for the boys or girls, each of whom brought
personal bedding and food. Mornings were devoted to work, the
afternoons to recreation, and the early evenings to social and
inspirational programs.

The Buncombe County camp was held at Biltmore on the
grounds of the famous Vanderbilt estate. Instead of tents the
boys and girls enjoyed waterworks, electric lights, and good
buildings with a railway station nearby. In addition, there were
purebred livestock and poultry to study. However the only hous-
ing for the campers from Rutherford County, gathered at the
base of Chimney Rock, was a combination of Mr. Mask's tents
and the natural growth of big trees. Rugged grandeur and cold
spring water rounded out the accommodations. Surveying the
advantages of both styles of camping in EFN for August 25,
State Farm Agent Hudson observed: "Young people who are
kept busy on the more or less isolated farms for most of the year
are entitled to some such outing as these, at least once a year.
Every county, whether it has extension work or not, should pro-
vide something of this character for its young people." Hudson
was of the opinion that it was actual camping, not learned,
theoretical discussions of the matter, that would be effective in
keeping both boys and girls contentedly on North Carolina
farms.

In contrast to these county camps which were clearly local
achievements, Mask's efforts to stage the state Short Course in
Raleigh during August 1920 were not very productive. On one
count, he was the culprit himself, however wise; he had set the
minimum age of a delegate at 14. For the members who did
attend, however, two historic firsts in the North Carolina club
story were recorded. It was not the practical course in rope work
and belt lacing that was of such moment. Neither was it the

73

The first state club officers ever
elected here.

exciting demonstration of gas
engine operation. It was this:
"State officers were elected, and
committees of boys were ap-
pointed to take an active part in
the meeting next year."
Herman Meadows from Oxford
was elected president; Richard
Noble of Deep Run, vice presi-
dent; and Manly Oldham be-
came secretary-treasurer. The
group picture of this first slate
of Agricultural Club officers for
North Carolina appeared on the
front page of EFN, September
22. In keeping with this effort
to share the planning of a fal-
tering, annual state event with
club members themselves, special leadership development
classes were set up by Mask. 1920's Course, nonetheless, estab-
Hshed a trend with 1919's; if county camping programs pros-
pered, state short courses fell off dramatically in attendance.

Organized out-of-state travel and competition also took a
big step during 1920. A livestock judging team of four members
was selected at the Hickory Fair and sent, at local expense, to a
regional contest at the Southeastern Fair in Atlanta. Tar Heel
Club News publicized the event and later announced that the
North Carolina team had placed 12th among 14 state teams.
The Texas team which won got a free trip to the Royal Live-
stock Show in London. All was not lost here, however. North
Carolina club members in various contests including livestock
judging won over $2,000 in cash prizes at home that autumn.

Farm Makers' Clubs in 1920 were handicapped by the
insufficient staff at all levels of Negro work. Nevertheless, John
Wray found a sensible alternative: working only with organized
clubs with stable memberships. He and Mr. Hall mailed or deli-
vered literature in bulk to the club secretaries, who passed it out
at meetings attended by both parents and young people. In
regard to club prizes, while 75 4-H buttons were presented to
their most diligent young members, more emphasis was placed
by both men on loan funds for members than upon any cash
prizes. In fact, cash awards were not allowed, for both Wray

74

and Hall agreed that too many youth were discouraged by their
failure to win a little money and altogether sacrificed the more
fundamental benefits of club membership. As early as 1915,
T. E. Browne had met with this same frustration in his own
club activities. (An educator by training, it was his practice in
EFN to discourage mere cash prizes.) The 1920 loans, adminis-
tered like the Farm Loan Act, enabled young farm people as
never before to invest in their work. Negro club members, for
instance, used the funds to purchase quality swine and poultry
stock in particular. Clarence Poe of The Progressive Farmer
had pioneered this plan two years earlier. Its use by Negro
youth was the crest of Wray's club year, along with county club
picnics, which sometimes attracted as many as 800 black citi-
zens. But it was the small size of the professional staff that
troubled everyone: the offices had been neglected for the two
men to go into the vast field, and the field work had suffered
whenever the Greensboro and Chadbourn offices were to be
tended.

It was especially the shortage of Negro home agents which
Wray and Hall pointed to. "The people," it was said again and
again, "have just awakened to the real purpose of the work and
it would be unfortunate to have their enthusiasm checked by
lack of proper supervision." Jane McKimmon was probably
more aware than anyone on the state level of the effect of hav-
ing lost the emergency federal funds that had paid home agents
for work among Negro women and girls. Whereas 41 counties
had had paid Negro home agents in 1919, there were only 27
counties in 1920 that had even Negro assistants to white home
agents. Each of these assistants was a volunteer. Bolstering the
white staff, especially in the area of organized clubs for girls,
was the appointment of Maude Wallace as District Agent in the
Piedmont.

The campaign for better bread, begun in Lincoln County
the previous year, rose vigorously in popularity and utility;
almost 1,000 contestants took part. Two boys were among the
breadmaking finalists. Every participant received small prizes
such as a toothbrush. In addition to hygiene and good biscuits,
the full range of homemaking practices appeared in the old
Canning Club program for the first time, with approximately
8,500 girls on hand to benefit.

How many of these girls attended one of the 32 county
encampments McKimmon reported for both boys and girls in

75

1920 was not recorded. About a dozen Union and Mecklenburg
girls attended a new hat camp at Wingate; at Lake Waccamaw
down east hand-crafted hats were the campers' delight also. If
any of this new head gear sported a 4-H chevron we do not
know, but the club camping spirit was clearly alive. In the
mountains Jackson and Swain counties held their first joint
camp. When Sampson County members spent several days at
White Lake, the emphasis was on how to dress a chicken. A. G.
Oliver, of course, was the brave instructor in this special inter-
est camp. He also built demonstration poultry houses on the
campsite as additional instruction for the 97 boys and girls in
attendance.

In keeping with the county initiative in the overall plan of
work, numerous short courses were also organized by McKim-
mon's home agents in separate counties, and at Elon College a
second annual state Short Course for 30 prize-winning club girls
was held the last week of July. Maude Wallace was in charge.
Every girl made a tam and started two kinds of baskets; in
addition each member took home several cardboards showing
planned, balanced meals for the family.

Miss Wallace later wrote of the division of labor among
selected county home agents during the week: "Miss Martha
Creighton, of Mecklenburg, millinery; Miss Lillian Cole, of
Union, basketry work; Miss Alexander, of Davidson, nutrition
work. I had charge of the work in clothing and Miss Ola Ste-
phenson that of games, plays and recreational work. Miss
Ward, the home agent of Alamance County, had charge of the
housekeeping, and all of us were made comfortable." So suc-
cessful were these cooperative arrangements, in fact, that the
girls wanted to stay two weeks instead of one. There were other
rewards. When Mrs. McKimmon showed up for a day and a
night, her satisfying presentation was on personal hygiene and
appearance. Of the girls themselves. Miss Wallace observed:
"Eastern North Carolina was better represented than West-
ern . . . but we hope next year our plans may work out so that
every county in which we have a home agent may have some-
one at the State Short Course."

There were 59 counties with home agents in 1920; certainly,
given McKimmon's record, these were the counties with the best
statistical chances for progressive club activities. Eighty-five
counties had a white farm agent, but this figure was a less
dependable indication of club potential. Only Greene and Hert-

76

ford Counties had home agents but no farm agents, yet 31 of the
460 organized clubs reported by Mrs. McKimmon were in these
two counties! In only the following 19 counties were there farm
and home agents in addition to local Negro farm agents in
1920:

Alamance Forsyth Rockingham

Anson Granville Sampson

Bladen Guilford Rowan

Brunswick Martin Vance

Columbus New Hanover Wake

Edgecombe Pender Warren

Pitt
Commonly a single Negro agent still served several counties.

Looked at from the perspective of club members themselves,
1920 provides another means of analysis. Mask and Wray
reported a total enrollment of only 3,068 members. Of the 2,100
noted by Mask, the vast majority were active in poultry or corn
projects, but only 307 or less than 15 percent of them reported
their project results. Wray's boys and girls were better reporters:
out of 968 members he got records from 368 — better than 38 per-
cent. McKimmon's enrollment figure for girls in 1920 stood at
8,529, more than 2.5 times the combined membership of Mask
and Wray; but her reporting technique did not include the num-
ber of girls sending in complete records.

Membership figures supplied by McKimmon's staff for 1921
show slightly fewer girls, 8,452, belonging to 539 organized
clubs. The decline in membership was due in part to the elimi-
nation of home agent offices in 10 counties during the year.
Despite having a reduced county load, McKimmon brought
Maude Wallace to Raleigh as her new assistant and replaced
her in the Piedmont District with active Mecklenburg agent
Martha Creighton.

In contrast to Wallace and McKimmon, Mask and Wray
reported increased enrollments for their clubs in 1921, although
each man recorded separate programs in only 25 counties. None-
theless, Wray's club load was almost as demanding as it had
been before the club organization drive began, for he and Mr.
Hall could rely on a local agent in only 10 of their 25. The
expected Negro home agents had been funded too late to begin
work anywhere until the next year. Against these odds, the
combined membership in white and Negro Agricultural Clubs
was still 4,380, up more than 1,300. Of the 2,001 reported by

77

Mask, almost 30 percent completed their projects, an impressive
37 percent of the 2,379 Negro boys and girls reported. Wray and
Hall not only had the higher completion rate and more mem-
bers, they were also responsible for 189 of the 335 organized
Agricultural Clubs in the state. Poultry, corn, and pigs were the
leading projects among all youth. Additional projects included
peanuts, potatoes, soybeans, sheep, beef, oats, and cotton.

These various figures demonstrate the slow, post-war Agri-
cultural Club growth, especially among Negroes. How excep-
tional the growth in any club actually was can be measured in
another way. A severe drought, the worst since 1881, extended
for several months over most of the state, greatly reducing the
yields of all summer crops, herds, and flocks. Particularly in
economic terms, the lingering effects of World War I were bor-
dering on financial ruin for county governments, many private
citizens, and the public school system. In reaction to the per-
sistently bad economy and dry weather, a time-consuming but
sensible demand from rural folks and farm leaders for the for-
mation of cooperative marketing associations for peanuts, cot-
ton, and tobacco preoccupied numerous Extension agents through-
out the state. There was also a fourth predator on the club scene
in 1921; the long-fought and feared boll weevil had crossed the
border from South Carolina in 1919, and by two years later was
in the heart of Tar Heel cotton country. While not many club
members grew cotton, club time was shredded by the weevil's
presence in two ways: agents were busily teaching farmers to
control the pest and at the same time were preaching the gospel
of crop diversification.

Rural converts to this sensible message were spread through-
out the state. Yet nowhere were there more youth among the
faithful than in Catawba County. The poultry-famed club boys
and girls, under the guidance of Farm Agent J. W. Hendricks,
and with ribbons and cups from Hickory, Kinston, Wilson,
Salisbury, Raleigh, and New York City, plus project money in
the bank, were not blind to other opportunities. According to
their District Agent E. S. Millsaps, they felt that "Jersey cows,
purebred hogs, purebred chickens, their clover, wheat, and the
famous Catawba yams" made them entirely "independent of
cotton."

In his other current role as Assistant State Farm Agent, Mr.
Mask actually devoted most of his time between February and
December 1921 to the formation of marketing cooperatives. He

78

had several important boys' and girls' club developments to
report, however. He and McKimmon saw continued progress in
county club encampments; he cited 24, she only 20. Nearly 2,700
boys and girls took part. (On the national level, nearly 63,000
club members in 38 states went camping.) Mask was high in his
praise of North Carolina local leaders in this year of heavy
demands on agents' time; for in camps especially the local
volunteers had saved the day. While learning to swim was a
special feature at almost every site, additional recreation, inspi-
ration, and instructional sessions filled out the program. Mak-
ing its first appearance on the camp curriculum was a class in
the operation of home lighting systems. Another unique feature
of the summer of 1921 was the Sampson County camping
requirement. This plan, reported by both Mask and McKimmon,
used camp as an inducement to the members to live up to basic
club requirements. No boy or girl could attend camp, for in-
stance, if the project record was not up to date. Moreover, no
club could take part in the county outing unless its local leader
went along. The wisdom of this demanding arrangement was
revealed by the happy results; 240 boys and girls attended for
the entire camp, with 600 coming for part of the period. The
leaders were entirely in charge, especially during mealtime
when each club had its turn in preparing the best board of fare.
Sampson County also showed up well in a regionally spon-
sored statewide contest designed to pinpoint the top three or-
ganized counties in the state according to the following score-
card:

Number organized clubs (6 a perfect score) 10%

Number enrolled in county

(100 a perfect score) 10

Number meetings held (7 a perfect score) 15

Percent of members attending meetings 20

exhibiting club projects 10

making complete report 25

attending county encampment 10

100%

Sampson's tally of 85.7 percent was next to the best score. With
a score of 85.97 percent, Gaston County won the portable mo-
tion picture and stereopticon machine given by the American
Limestone Company of Knoxville, Tennessee. The success of

79

this county was not surprising. One reason was an outstanding
Poultry and Pig Club girl, Virginia Stroupe, of Lowell, who, as
the best livestock club member in North Carolina, won a trip to
the International Livestock Exposition in Chicago. Her sponsor
was the Wilson Martin Company of Philadelphia. Also in Gas-
ton's favor was having the state's first part-time assistant
county agent at work during the summer of 192L This experi-
ment of statewide significance for the future of youth work had
been paid for by the Gastonia Kiwanis Club and the County
Board of Education.

In no previous year, in fact, had club activities throughout
North Carolina been so well supported by either donors or
volunteer local leaders. Catawba County, which placed third in
the American Limestone Contest with a score of 82.87 percent,
had other reasons to boast of its successful club year, despite
great public and private economic stress.

For one thing, Catawba's Floyd E. Lutz of Newton had won
a free, educational trip to Washington. With the top yield of
corn in the Ninth Congressional District, he bested 92 other
boys; the sponsor was Congressman A. L. Bulwinkle of Gasto-
nia. In earlier years this prize had been a $50 college grant.
Catawba club members, in competition with boys and girls
from Buncombe, Cleveland, Gaston, Lincoln, Stanly, Sampson,
and Cumberland, had also inaugurated a revolutionary new
feature of the state club program at the State Fair during
October. Five poultry and five corn demonstration teams from
these counties were given free trips to Raleigh to compete with
each other daily in the two divisions. Each team was given a
booth with an 8-foot front. Club banners proudly displayed the
4-H emblem. When the week was over this round of actual team
demonstrations in poultry science and corn had scored well
with thousands of fairgoers. The Cumberland team won the
demonstration contest in poultry; the Cleveland team took top
honors for the corn trophy. Joining in sponsoring these historic
demonstrations were Mrs. George Vanderbilt of Biltmore, a
faithful fair supporter who was president of the 1921 State Fair,
and two other fair officials.

Writing in praise of Homer Mask's demonstration contest
in the October 20, 1921 issue of the News and Observer, an
impressed farm editor saw the contest as "distinctly an advance-
ment in this line of work. When these boys and girls can show
as they have shown that they can apply scientific methods . . .

80

it means that the farmers of the next generation will carry the
State to a still higher point of prosperity and better farming
methods." While the inspired writer probably could have
guessed that these first team demonstrations at the State Fair
had a promising future, he probably did not know that in the
hectic year of 1921 this affair doubled as both State Fair and
state Short Course. Economics had forced the cancellation of
State College's customary summer course which was to have
been presided over by the first state council of duly elected club
officers. With advice from those officers and several other club
members, however, the 10 demonstrations of broad educational
and club significance at the State Fair had been arranged. It
would be hard to imagine a more fruitful club compromise with
the economic realities of 1921.

The rise of these club demonstrators within the membership
in North Carolina was a response to the national club plan
which Mask had used in 1919 and circulated throughout the
state in 1920. Point 4(e) had stipulated that "important phases
of each project should be demonstrated by the agent, specialist,
or local leader." It was only a short time before the boys and
girls who were learning by doing joined these illustrious ranks,
however. The 1921 State Fair proved that. On the national level,
it was not until 1922 that the first demonstration by members
was organized; it was a canning contest sponsored by the
Hazel-Atlas Glass Company. Five sectional preliminaries were
set up, with the finals being held during the first National Boys
and Girls Club Exposition in Chicago. It is not clear that North
Carolina took part in any stage of this competition. (Neither did
the state receive a call in 1923 to put on exemplary demonstra-
tions for potential national sponsors of club programs. G. L.
Noble headed up this campaign as secretary of the recently
established National Committee on Boys and Girls Club Work.
The boys and girls he did use as demonstrators were successful
in convincing the American Bankers Association to endorse
club work as its top agricultural project. Noble himself had even
given a demonstration for the cause, using several beautifully
done charts like those agents, specialists, and now club mem-
bers had learned to rely upon.)

The traditional state Short Course for Agricultural Club
boys and girls was not the only 1921 casualty, however. EFN
had suspended its publication March 9 and was not able to
resume until December 21. Tar Heel Club News also altered its

81

format and monthly schedule. The economic stress and strain
did not cause Miss Wallace to cancel the third annual Short
Course for girls. In accord with her expressed intention of
enlarging the number of participants over the previous year's
attendance at Elon, she reported that 75 girls registered prompt-
ly at Mrs. McKimmon's alma mater, Peace College in Raleigh.
The sessions were social and recreational as well as educa-
tional. It was probably during this meeting that the first
fashion revue for club girls was held on the state level. Records
indicate that this activity had been popular and useful at local
courses throughout 1921. It is of special interest that these early
fashion clinics used models who were poorly attired in addition
to well arrayed ones; wise Miss Wallace thought the contrast
was instructive.

Very probably the girls in town for the summer Short
Course at Peace and certainly the club demonstration teams
and exhibitors that came to Raleigh in October for the State
Fair were shown across Hillsboro Street the construction site of
the new Agricultural Extension Service Building on the State
College campus. Scheduled for completion in the summer of
1922, this heavy-set structure would be known to future 4-H'ers
as Ricks Hall, but the vital place it would take in the state's
rural life already loomed. Back at home the community clubs
for people of all ages were, in concord with churches, the social
and educational centers of country life. Fall club rally days had
become standard events at many county courthouses. Among
Negroes five home agents were at work in as many counties; 18
local Negro farm agents continued to serve approximately 25
counties, and Mr. Wray's assistant, L. E. Hall, now a Negro
District Agent in the total Extension vision, moved to Raleigh
from Chadbourn.

Upon these signs of local integrity and growing central
strength, there fell a shadow for club members in early 1922
when Homer Mask, the organization man, resigned as Agricul-
tural Club Supervisor and Assistant State Farm Agent to be-
come field manager of the North Carolina Cotton Growers
Cooperative Association. That was a sign of the times, however.
Much as in the earlier case of busy T. E. Browne, Mask had
turned to a new job which his old lines of duty had promoted.
But unlike the two awkward years between Browne's absorp-
tion in vocational education and the appointment of his agricul-
tural club successor, only a couple of months separated the

82

Kirby

resignation of Mask and the ap-
pointment of S. J. Kirby as the
new State Club Leader and As-
sistant State Farm Agent in
June 1922. He was the man
who had served not quite a year
as Mask's only Plant Club
agent. Now returning to
Raleigh after less than two
years as Johnston County
Farm Agent, this respected
agronomist and tested educator
was more secure among friends
and old acquaintances. State
College had been his under-
graduate school; he had fin-
ished in 1912. Then the Selma
native had spent a year in
graduate study at the University of Missouri. The fall of 1913
found him teaching science and agriculture at the Washington
Collegiate Institute in Beaufort County. From the banks of the
Pamlico he went the next year to be principal of the Robeson
County Farm-Life School at Red Springs. Supervisor of Agricul-
tural Education in Gaston County was his next job; he left it in
1917 to return to State College as an assistant in Agronomy.
There he did the careful work which had first attracted Homer
Mask's attention in 1919. As Johnston County Farm Agent,
Kirby had organized 15 Agricultural Clubs in 1920 alone. The
signs are that as State Club Agent his agricultural associates
Wray and Hall, as well as Home Economic's proficient Maude
Wallace, willingly cooperated with Kirby. Mrs. McKimmon and
Mr. Hudson expressed their confidence in the new man.

Hudson, especially through his songs, had aided and liked
Homer Mask, who had never lost his interest in club poultry. In
Franklin County, for example, he had helped organize 10 new
clubs the month before his resignation. It is not recorded, how-
ever, that any boy or girl ever honored Mr. Mask by naming a
rooster Homer. Such an honor did come to dependable A. G.
Oliver though. The tragic consequences appeared in the June
1922 issue of EFN. Flora Morrison, 14 and a club member at
Eagle Springs in Moore County, named her only rooster Oliver.
On Christmas night, 1921, a thief broke Oliver's neck as he

83

attempted to steal the special bird and escape from the Morri-
son's watch dog at the same time. Oliver's only mate was Prof-
fitt, named for the county home demonstration agent. Follow-
ing Oliver's sad death, according to Flora, Proffitt tried to
commit suicide by running into the path of a farm truck.

Rural life lived, not feared, still had the sounds of both
barnyard and front yard music to Mr. Hudson in the summer of
1922, and Sammie Kirby smartly learned the boss's lyrics:

Carolina, Carolina,

We will aye be true to thee!

From the mountains in the skyland.

To the plains down by the sea;

From thy roaring Ro-an-oke,

To thy Yadkin bold and free,

Carolina, Carolina,

We will aye be true to thee!

Kirby's Extension friends called him Sammie. He was
smart, a communicative person; but a sickly man for all that.
Every January, it seemed, flu threatened his life. His term as
State Club Agent, like his employment record already estab-
lished, would be short. It began in June 1922 and ended by his
own choice in December 1924 when he became the College's
first pasture specialist, a less strenuous job than club leader-
ship. During the intervening 30 months, however, with a gift
suggested by his respected corn bulletin of 1919, Sammie Kirby
did what spoken and written words could to give life and direc-
tion to club record keeping, camping and the new style of club
demonstration in particular. His first month in office, he placed
two 4-H emblems on the masthead of Tar Heel Club News.

Kirby and Wray noted a combined 1922 enrollment of 5,397
members; a majority of the membership was Negro. Fifty-eight
percent of the total membership reported project results; with
poultry, pig and corn leading among white members; with corn,
poultry, and pig work predominating among Negro youth. Four-
fifths of Kirby's membership had belonged to 142 organized
clubs in 39 counties. Wray and Hall on the other hand, operated
necessarily through organized clubs only. Jane S. McKimmon
reported 544 girls' clubs with a membership of 9,350. In North-
ampton a club of advanced girls served dinner to a joint meet-
ing of the Commissioners and the County Board of Education.

84

McKimmon reported with satisfaction this tribute to local co-
operators.

Both she and Kirby saw continued progress in club encamp-
ments, and by summer's end in 1922 the basic innovations in
this combination of recreation and county club short course had
been registered. He reported 32 counties participating in a total
of 27 encampments that involved 2,665 boys and girls. She cited
only 24 camps, but reserved special praise for Alamance Coun-
ty's ambitious transporting of 62 boys and girls nearly 200
miles from their rolling county hills to the state's highest moun-
tains. The Sampson County camp at White Lake was even
larger than in 1921, despite the fact that the entrance require-
ments were even more rigid. Other counties had also followed
this attendance plan with success. Kirby reported that a num-
ber of boys and girls across the state had worked overtime to
get their records in order before the camping dates. The Samp-
son boys and girls also led in another area: the state's initial
first-aid and lifesaving classes, taught by Dr. E. T. Hollings-
worth. In related activities, Pauline Williams of Wilmington
taught swimming; C. M. James of Burgaw led daily baseball
practice which culminated in a Friday afternoon game. There
was special interest, also, in a plant identification contest di-
rected by Wayne County Agent A. K. Robertson, formerly of the
State club staff.

Peace College was the setting of the Fourth Annual Short
Course for home demonstration girls the third week of June.
Heretofore this course had been limited to prize-winning mem-

Basketry engaged these girls who attended the 1922 Short Course at
Raleigh's Peace Institute.

85

bers, but in 1922 the organized counties were encouraged to
send all of the girls that could be locally financed. One hundred
thirty members made the trip. Bladen, Columbus, and Stanly
each sent 15 girls, the ones from Stanly traveling by school bus.
The courses were instructional as well as recreational, and
Raleigh proved as hospitable to its young guests as the county
donors of their trips had proved generous. Household furnish-
ings, old and new, had replaced 1921s clothing as the leading
topic for the week, and each girl went home empowered to show
off her new skills to the members there. A related 1922 devel-
opment was in the area of arts and crafts, an activity enrolling
3,050 girls who made rugs, brooms, counterpanes, and chair
bottoms. This economic work fit into Governor Cameron Morri-
son's "Live-at-Home" campaign in which the chief emphasis
had been on gardening.

For Kirby, whose professional career had made him famil-
iar with most of North Carolina, the duties of State Club Agent
also led him to promote a new kind of club activity, the club
tour. These trips were educational and recreational, most often
made via school busses at the expense, chiefly, of civic organi-
zations. In some counties, the tour replaced the annual camp.

Nothing supplanted the fairs and particularly the State
Fair of 1922 in Kirby's plan of work, however. Club members
made good showings all over the state, and the stage was set for
Raleigh and an expanded roster of the demonstrations that had
been pioneered in 1921. A large tent was the club arena. State
College provided rooming space nearby, and the Fair adminis-
tration extended other courtesies to the approximately 200 boys
and girls who came for the entire week. Kirby even called the
event a Short Course. The demonstration competition was in
four project areas: corn, Irish potatoes, poultry, and dairy calf.
There were four teams in each contest except for poultry, the
state's most popular project, which had five. Thousands of fair-
goers, including General John J. Pershing and Mrs. Vanderbilt,
visited the club demonstration tent and stayed to question the
young demonstrators who performed twice each day.

These demonstrations were certainly a popular success.
They taught method and results in scientific farming. They also
were good public relations for the club system of state and
nationwide voluntary practical education. Because of the im-
portance that the demonstration has retained in the total 4-H
program, an examination of the 17 entries and their evaluation

86

in 1922 is warranted. Charts and materials plus scale or live
models were allowed.

Gaston
Cumberland
Sampson
Durham

Buncombe
Buncombe
Avery

Avery

Craven
Stanly
Buncombe
New Hanover
Cleveland

Catawba
Catawba
Catawba

Corn

Marion Hagger and Nevel Mooney "Seed
Storage and Treatment"

Alton Smith and Gordon Marsh "Corn Rota-
tions" (first)

Frank Peterson and A. A. Maynard "Fertiliz-
ing Corn" (second)

Lillie Cannady and Fernie Howard "Utility
Factors in Seed Corn"

Irish Potatoes

Curtis Glenn and Algie Fullam "Seed
Selection"

Bronson Levi and Gaston Fletcher "Grading
and Packing Potatoes"

Galen Johnson and Wade Buchannon "Spray-
ing Potatoes" (first)

Hustler Wilson and Harold Daniels "Potato "
(second)

Poultry

NeUie McCoy and Mabel Cox "Feeds and Feed-
ing

Dolletta Bost and Thurman Furr "Poultry
Houses and Equipment" (first)
Meta Saunders and Julie Campiche "Sanita-
tion in Poultry Houses (second)
Tom Page and Vernon Huggins "Culling the
Flock"

Bernard Mooney and Charles Falls "Can-
dling, Grading, Packing, Marketing, and Pre-
serving Eggs"

Dairy Calf

Bunyon Love and Glenn Love "Feeds and Feed-
ing the Dairy Calf"

Harry Baker and Kearney Cline "Selecting
Dairy Calves" (second)

Frank Lutz and Ralph Lutz "Fitting the Dairy
Calf for the Ring"

87

Transylvania Eugene Crump and Walter Scarborough "Sani-
tary Milk Production" (first)

The dairy calf demonstration was the one of the four in
which club members had had the least project work statewide;
but Catawba, long a poultry club nest, had in the spring of 1922
organized the first official Jersey Calf Club in the South. Unlike
the organization of Harnett County Club members and leaders
owning Jersey calves in 1917, this Catawba club was sanc-
tioned by the American Jersey Cattle Club which supported the
new venture with a cash award of $75. Energetic J. W. Hen-
dricks served as both agent and leader; George Cline was club
president, and Frank Lutz served as secretary to the member-
ship of almost 30 boys and girls. Despite this background which
placed three Catawba teams in Raleigh, the team from Tran-
sylvania won the State Fair calf demonstration.

Buncombe's participation in two Irish potato demonstra-
tions was a direct result of guidance from County Club Agent L.
R. Harrill. His associate, Annie L. Rankin Clement, formerly of
Warren County, was more successful than he, however. Her
girls placed second in poultry, while his potato teams lost both
places to Avery County boys. Mr. Harrill was 5 months into his
job as the state's first full-time assistant county farm agent by
the time the 1922 Fair ended.

It was not until that Friday morning that the results of the
week-long demonstration contest were announced by judges
Jane S. McKimmon, Soil Agronomist W. F. Pate, and Professor
Robert Ruffner who had used the following scorecard, which
had also been used in the counties to train and select the com-
peting teams.

Club boys with Jersey cows and calves surround Agent Hendricks
at this 1923 Catawba County show.

88

1. Skills 15%

a. Ease and procedure 5%

b. Neatness 5%

c. Speed 5%

2. Subject-matter 30%

a. Accuracy 10%

b. Completeness 10%

c. Presentation 10%

3. Demonstration material and attractiveness of
booth 25%

4. Team as a whole 30%

a. Team organization and work 5%

b. Preparation and use of material and
equipment 5%

c. Replies to questions 5%

d. Appearance of team 15%

(1) Uniformity of costume 5%

(2) Personal appearance 5%

(3) Deportment 5%

TOTAL 100%

Since each county team had won rail passage to and from
Raleigh, no participant left the club tent truly downhearted.
Two teams were in exceptionally high spirits, however. The
Stanly boy and girl in poultry had made the highest score of all;
Galen Johnson and Wade Buchannon of Avery were not far
behind. Cumberland citizens in the tent felt proud too. Their
new state corn champions had joined their 1921 state poultry
demonstration winners.

Before we fold it up, however, and put the tent in a safe
place for 1923, it would be well to mention one additional fea-
ture of this highly organized affair. Club judging contests in
livestock, plants, and seeds enrolled 160 club members, many of
whom, according to Kirby, "made a very creditable showing." A
bulletin entitled "Judging Livestock and Poultry," published in
June, had prepared club members for this contest. It was the
first largescale competition to oppose them and the members of
Mr. T. E. Browne's Vocational Agriculture Clubs, of which there
were more than 40 in existence by the autumn of 1922.

Whether the Future Farmers of America or 4-H was des-
tined to take youthful time by the forelocks in North Carolina
during these post-war years apparently did not preoccupy the
State Club Agent. Browne's program was very popular in rural

89

high schools. Kirby promoted 4-H, not as one would take sides
in a contest, but as a busy leader who saw value in specific,
completed tasks rather than in the number of tasks undertaken
or in the number of boys and girls involved. In the August 1923
issue of EFN, he addressed his membership for about the twen-
tieth time since the preceding February, when the last issue of
Tar Heel Club News had been printed. In the August article
Kirby promoted a newly adopted pin for dependable 4-H mem-
bers. The octagonal emblem was subject to the following na-
tional rules, he pointed out. Any club member with records in
order would receive a bronze pin the first year, an oxidized
silver one the second, a rose gold pin for the third complete
record, and a jeweled rose gold 4-H pin for the fourth year of
completed project work.

Whereas in 1915 Mr. Browne had used the national emblem
to attract members and in 1920 Homer Mask had referred to the
4-H emblem in his plan of work as a reward for a member's
creditably completed work, this new awards schedule pointed
North Carolina club members in the direction of a longtime pro-
ject record for the first time. If Kirby's promotional articles for
the first half of 1923 are reduced to several paragraphs, this
longer range of achievement common to his vision stands out.
His was the first newspaper promotion of club work on such a
scale.

First he praised the 58 percent of the 1922 enrollment who
had submitted project records. Relying directly on the 4-H
motto, he challenged rural boys and girls, old and new members
alike, and then explained the club organization and its applica-
tion card. In March he took care to explain the upcoming distri-
bution of project record books, and he also commended the fine
spirit of cooperation that his mail from the counties had re-
vealed to him. Pointing out that several of the state record
books were national in origin, he also supplied the membership
with various national statistics about Boys' and Girls' Clubs. In
1922, for example, there had been 600,000 members nationwide;
only about 15,000 of them had been North Carolinians.

In a separate item he addressed the familiar question of
prizes for club achievements: "We would not encourage the ask-
ing for individual cash prizes, but would be inclined to the idea
of trying to secure the kind of prize that would encourage team
work on the part of the club as a whole. A prize of this kind will
prove of much more value, and is capable of developing an

90

interest that will be reflected in the general improvement over
the entire community. Some competition is all right, and espe-
cially where it stimulates everyone to do his best." Trophies,
Kirby believed, were the most acceptable prizes.

In April, the State Club Agent's chief interest turned to
camping. "What about club encampments?" one article asked.
He supplied the twofold answer. Every organized county should
make camping plans, and every member in these counties
should sign up. In conjunction with Maude Wallace, he had
plans to make judging contests a prominent feature of the
summer outings and also to train in camp various demonstra-
tion and judging teams for state meets. (These plans were an
anticipation of county and district contests.) Elsewhere he in-
vited requests for project literature and, in an idealized account,
reviewed the development of a club meeting, pausing near the
end of that article to observe that "Club work is bound to tell in
the future." Whether it would "tell" more in monetary or in edu-
cational terms Kirby did not venture, but he mused with the
Honorable Henry C. Wallace, the Secretary of Agriculture: "Is
not the biggest advantage from the boys' and girls' club work
that they learn how to work together, learn how to cooperate,
learn how to organize American life, business and social, on the
basis of all good that can contribute for all the members of the
community?" Club circulars and bulletins, he pointed out
finally, were any member's best access to good monthly club
program materials. One timely program, for instance, might
emphasize the importance of cotton production for boys and
girls.

No one who knew Sammie Kirby expected him to stay off
the subject of corn very long. In the May issue he challenged
young corn farmers to strive not for 10 beautiful ears, but for
the largest economic yield in a crop of corn, as well as in soy-
beans and cotton. To make his point he alluded to the second-
place fertilization demonstration given by the Sampson County
team at the last State Fair. Miss Wallace shared the club space
in this EFN in order to promote the Fifth Annual Short Course
for club girls, scheduled for Peace College, the first week in
June. But in the next number Kirby was back, illustrating this
time the importance of a county club council like the one he had
recently organized in Yadkin County. There he had inspired the
members with a broader vision and promised club certificates to
each boy and girl who completed a project. In a separate article

91

WMerCouw/

r* Poultry^ Bro^dlnR Stock ^

4 ^

I

V

■ ■'%*' nil ^

i.

I

II

i

.Jr.

Hutaff Poultry Club members in the New Hanover booth at the 1923
State Fair.

he discussed these certificates of merit in depth; alongside ran
topical items on club encampments and the Short Course for
girls. Although Kirby wrote neither of these two articles, he was
the author of the next full-page outline of camping from A to Z,
complete with a schedule of all the state's planned club camps
for the summer. He listed six joint outings and 21 single county
ventures. He saw merit in both styles of camp, noting the
advantages to members in going away to a joint camp as well
as the local adults' profit whenever a camp was near enough at
hand to visit.

The capable public relations which Kirby's articles and
appearances amounted to had drawn attention in Washington
by July, when I. W. Hill praised the new life he saw and heard
evidence of in North Carolina. As if in response to this recogni-
tion, Kirby did the characteristic thing and turned the praise
toward others; in particular, to the business men who had sup-
ported the club program, to the agents and specialists, and
finally to the leaders and members themselves, those who had
directly accepted the opportunity to teach people by demonstra-
tion. Rounding out his six-month newspaper campaign were

92

two articles concerning judging and demonstration contests.
These pieces more specifically than any others anticipated the
combined Short Course-State Fair, but in a concluding sentence
or two, Kirby set in motion the total club program in a competi-
tive framework of betterment: "In the county demonstration
contests, a team will be selected by your county agent for the
State contest, and the local club making the most thorough
preparation, with every member doing his or her part for put-
ting on a demonstration, will in all probability have a team in
the State contest." This series of paragraphs based on Kirby's
1923 script for club promotion gives us the sense that the evolu-
tion of proud record keepers and competitors, moderated by a
sense of club membership, was taking place as his ink dried.

The 1923 annual reports give the same impression, whether
we examine the words of McKimmon, Wray, or Kirby. She cited
620 girls' clubs with a membership of 11,273. The men's figures
noted 542 clubs with a total membership of white and Negro
boys and girls amounting to 5,907. Approximately 50 counties
supported this outstanding club effort.

The best measure of 1923's club results is in several profiles,
however. Viola Kiker of Polkton in Anson County won first and
fifth places with Silver Wyandotte cockerels at the Madison
Square Garden Poultry Show. Even A. G. Oliver was surprised.
In a related poultry activity, Mr. George Hutaff of Wilmington
financed 50 New Hanover boys and girls in club work. They
formed the Hutaff Poultry Club, each member receiving 15
Rhode Island Red chicks. Perhaps the state had no better all-
round club members than Bunyon Love of Catawba and Helen
Creesman of Buncombe. He was outstanding in sheep and Jer-
sey calf work. At the 1922 State Fair, he had been one of
Catawba's team demonstrators in the dairy calf division. His
records in corn and cotton production were also top quality.
Miss Creesman, who had been the first individual calf club
member in the mountain counties, was also an outstanding
poultry exhibitor, having won a trip to the State Fair. Her
development as a leader of younger club members was as
remarkable as her gifts with animals and chickens: Helen was
the first club member L. R. Harrill, as county club agent, ever
singled out for special praise.

It was two different club members who received the state's
most unusual recognition in 1923, however. Both Dermont
Kerns of Randolph and Bladen's pretty Catherine Clark won

93

Helen Creesman of Buncombe and one of her club animals.

trips to Chicago for themselves and their agents. Dermont
attended the International Livestock Exposition; Catherine was
the State's first delegate to the first Boys and Girls National
Club Congress, held, as later, in conjunction with the Exposi-
tion. He had been the top individual judge in the state pig con-
test at the Sandhills Fair in Pinehurst. This contest was distin-
guished for having piloted the district elimination process as a
prehminary to the State judging finals. At the expense of the
Southern Berkshire Congress and two local banks the smart

94

young judge and his agent, E. S. Millsaps, Jr., made the trip to
Chicago in November. Maude Wallace was Miss Clark's chape-
rone; Montgomery Ward and Company paid their way. Cath-
erine's honor was her recognized excellence in all-round home
economics club work. Her specific title had been somewhat dif-
ferent. She had been the highest scoring girl on any winning
demonstration team at the 1923 State Fair. With teammate
Flora Monroe she had won first place in jellymaking.

Catherine Clark's special recognition was directly related to
the other real success story of the female club organization in
1923. Miss Wallace, in particular, was the person responsible.
During the 1922 State Fair, she had seen the need for a better
way of screening the demonstration teams for statewide compe-
tition. Using the organization he had, Sam Kirby had dealt
with certain counties only; there had been no district route in
his selection plan. Miss Wallace, benefiting from the finer
McKimmon organization, envisioned both county and district
eliminations, preliminary to the demonstrations at the Fair. By
September 1923 her plans had taken shape. She announced a
schedule of district demonstration contests in which girls would
compete in breads, canning, jellymaking, and clothing. The top
district teams would compete at the State Fair, and it seemed to
Maude Wallace that her girls would be clearly superior to Kir-
by's demonstrators, even though her contests would be largely
distinct from his. It is true that the scorecard she adopted was a
slightly revised version of Kirby's 1922 tally. Moreover, Miss
Wallace encouraged girls to compete with Agricultural Club
members in poultry, as in 1921 and 1922.

At the State Fair, where 20 teams of two girls competed,
Wallace's girls did not win every contest. Robeson County's
Julius Singletary and Archie Ward, Jr. won the poultry demon-
stration, and one member of the winning bread team was Lester
Norton of Scotland County. His teammate was Mamie Living-
ston. In addition to Catherine Clark and her food-processing
partner, the other successful girls were: Transylvania's Edna
Reece and Margaret Gash, canning; and Rowan's clothing team
of Linda Bailey and Doris Miller. These last two demonstrators,
photographs show, wore 4-H badges and were similarly dressed.

Besides these new demonstrations, with the built-in district
elimination, the club tent in 1923 featured teams of boys who
demonstrated methods or results in corn, dairy calf, and pigs as
well as poultry. Over the front door the banner read: "The Boys

95

and Girls Agricultural Club Work, Live Demonstrations by
Members of Four-H Clubs, Come in." On either side of the
words, a large four-leaf clover with a single large H touching all
of the leaves was featured. The results inside for Kirby's mem-
bers were inferior in quality and in the number of teams to 1921
and 1922. From the popular appeal of Miss Wallace's demon-
stration booths, he saw that the district demonstration contest
pioneered by her had had real merit.

Consequently he observed in the annual report:

There are certain difficulties in connection with hold-
ing the State Short Course during the week of the
State Fair. While it has the advantage of giving all
club members in attendance an opportunity to partic-
ipate in many of the contests, it, nevertheless, is at a
season of the year in which many of the club mem-
bers are in school, and many find it next to impossible
to come to Raleigh. Plans are being perfected to hold
the State Club Short Course at the State College for a
week or ten days during July or August, in the future,
and in connection with the short course program to
put on State Club contests in which to select club
members to return to give noncompetitive demonstra-
tions during the State Fair.

♦

A Pender County clothing class, September 1923.

96

However perfect the club plan, its realization may be
flawed. The vision of the planner is hardly less wonderful than
the power of natural and administrative circumstances to give
daily events the route of necessity. For example, Buncombe's
L. R. Harrill resigned to take a job with more salary. It was
necessity that ruled all club life in 1924; it is apparent, however,
that necessity's road was not always dark and gloomy.

S. J. Kirby had his winter flu and was active again by late
February, at which time the club membership drive for 1924 got
belatedly underway. In March he announced to the membership
his plan of holding a summer Short Course at State College.
Two items of news not mentioned in the 1923 annual report
were also mentioned in the same article. Up-to-date project
records, already established as a requirement for attendance at
club camps, would be required of Short Course delegates. The
second piece of news was of equal moment; the summer course
for boys, resuming after the war interruption and the State Fair
interlude, would be held for the first time in conjunction with
the club girls of Mrs. McKimmon and Maude Wallace. Also in
the March 1924 issue of EFN appeared Kirby's article entitled
"Demonstration Contests for State Fair Week." "From the club
members in each district," he wrote, "one demonstration team
will be selected in a contest to give demonstrations with each of
the following subjects: (1) pig, (2) poultry, (3) calf, (4) corn, and
(5) either cotton, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, or peanuts."
Just as the range of choices made it clear that Kirby was an
agronomist, his additional remarks about the contest further
revealed his personal commitment to good club records.

To compete in a district contest for a place on one of
these teams, club members will enter local county
contests from which the winners go to the district
contest. The club members in each county will be
permitted to send five teams to the district contest.
Each club member to compete for a place on any team
must have enrolled in club work prior to April 1, have
a demonstration in the project from which the subject
for the demonstration contest is selected, and have a
record book complete and up-to-date ... at the time
the contest is held.

It is not clear, by the way, why Kirby had by the early
spring lost sight of his plan to stage noncompetitive demonstra-
tions at the State Fair by conducting a state elimination during

97

the summer Short Course. Had necessity canceled the Short
Course itself? None of these matters was mentioned in the April
paper, which devoted more club space to the importance of care-
fully kept records and the favorable prospects for a good club
year. This line of thought led Kirby to conclude by stating: "An
early start is a big advantage in the work, but a late start is
better than no start, so if you have not yet selected your acre of
land, secured your pig or calf for your club demonstration, do it
at once and be in the game. You might wish to attend the Inter-
national Livestock Show in Chicago on a prize free trip this
year."

That the idea of reviving the state Short Course was still
alive became apparent to the young readers of the May issue of
EFN. In a specific article Kirby called for a new kind of state-
wide contest, one having nothing to do with projects directly;
one borrowing, rather, the spirit of the now successful camping
program. The article said, in short: "Contests will be held dur-
ing the week in singing, yelling, and giving stunts, so it would
be a good idea for the group attending from each county to get
up a good club or county yell, song and stunt before leaving
home." A related story in the same paper went further in
emphasizing the Short Course; while giving importance to in-
struction, the campus visit would combine study and enter-
tainment in such a way as to train the club delegates in full-
fledged leadership. Kirby hoped that each organized club in the
state would be represented by from one to 10 delegates between
the ages of 12 and 19.

Whatever attention members, parents, and county agents
were paying to this series of club articles, seasonal weather —
the necessity of rural life — clearly was not paying any attention
to State Club Agent Kirby in 1924. As a college student he had
loved an argument better than happiness. At no time, however,
could even he sway the elements from their course, either the
very late spring showers that delayed planting or the cloudy,
rainy weather that saturated the entire state most of June.
Elemental necessity did not know or care that the most ambi-
tious summer Short Course program ever and a competitive
State Fair in addition to a full camping season were planned for
that summer and fall. Every farmer knew, on the other hand,
that cotton had never looked worse or tobacco more threatened;
hired labor had never been so high. What ultimate differences
did the wet weather make for club boys and girls?

98

It kept all but about 50 boys away from the late June Short
Course at State College, but the girls came in record numbers,
nearly 300 of them representing 40 counties. The assemblies
were joint affairs with Mr. Kirby and Miss Wallace in charge.
The classes were separate. Club boys studied tractor operation
and built hog houses and brooder coops. The girls chose two of
four possible classes in clothing, breadmaking, food preserva-
tion, and poultry. No social or recreational notes and no ac-
count of Kirby's proposed contest in yells, songs, or stunts have
survived.

The facts are less sketchy for the two district Short Courses
held for Negro boys and girls in late July and early August.
These gatherings at Winton and Greensboro were unprece-
dented. Fifty-three boys and girls attended the eastern meeting;
about 130 came to Greensboro, where the course was hosted by
A&T College. The girls followed the same schedule which
Maude Wallace had prepared for the white girls in Raleigh.
Practical carpentry and harness construction occupied the
Negro boys. All members were given physical drills and poultry
lessons in the morning. Group games took a part of each after-
noon. Dr. Sebastian of the College staff lectured the delegates
on health. Wednesday evening's program was entirely in the
hands of the boys and girls, whereas the following evening was
spent at the movies. It rained on the excited moviegoers, how-
ever, with the effect that most of them were "baptized for the
second time," according to Wake County's Negro Home Agent.
Friday afternoon brought good weather for a picnic at the Guil-
ford Battleground. The photograph of this outing particularly
featured the club girls clad in the new gingham dresses they
had drafted, cut, and made during the week. The August issue
of EFN, which ran this picture, indicated that a third course for
Negro youth was planned for New Bern in early September.
Negro county fairs and the State Fair as well engaged the tal-
ents and interests of Wray's members that fall. He reported that
11 demonstration and judging teams saw action.

The first club camps for Negro boys and girls had also been
held during the uncertain summer of 1924. The very first one
was organized by Mrs. Sarah Williams, who supervised Beau-
fort County boys and girls on a five-day adventure along the
Pamlico River. By summer's end, four additional camps at other
sites had enriched more than 300 young lives.

Kirby reported that 3,090 white boys and girls from 33

99

counties had gone camping between June 10 and August 30.
Special praise for the Robeson camp at Lake Waccamaw came
from A. G. OUver, who taught his customary poultry classes to
the members. Club tours also prospered; Alamance members
visited Washington, D. C. The quality and popularity of this
expanded camping and tour season suggested to some observers
that these established joys rather than the plague of unseason-
able weather had nipped the bud of the State Agent's plans for
attracting the club boys, in particular, to the summer Short
Course in Raleigh again.

As the time of the State Fair drew near, the disappoint-
ments of late June had been put in perspective. The demonstra-
tion contests and district eliminations announced in the spring
were still scheduled. In addition, Kirby announced, "Good train-
ing and a week of splendid entertainment are in store for those
who win out and come to the State Fair. The boys will be
housed and fed at State College. This entertainment for the
members of the agricultural demonstration teams is free. Be-
sides this, they will have an opportunity to see the annual foot-
ball game between the University and State College on Thurs-
day of Fair Week." Carolina won this contest 10 to 0; more than
15,000 fans looked on.

Across the campus at the Fairgrounds, large crowds heeded
the club demonstration contests all week. In the new Agricultur-
al Building 17 booths were kept in constant service by the 20
teams. Buncombe County, in addition to winning the $500 prize
for the best county exhibit, also won the pig and calf demon-
strations and took second place in poultry and special crops.
The record suggested that value of that county's pioneer club
agent program. A Pender boy and girl won the poultry prize;
Hertford boys won in special crops. The corn demonstration
was won by Stanly, whose team also finished second in the pig
contest. Among the girls who boasted 25 teams, Buncombe
came in second in clothing, a contest won by Sampson County.
Other winners were Anson in breadmaking, with Perquimans a
close second; Johnston in jelly making; and Cabarrus in food
conservation. This competition took place in the Woman's Build-
ing.

Finally, Sallie Herring of Johnston and Perquimans'
Maude Rodgerson were named first and second place winners
in the state home economics contest sponsored by Montgomery
Ward. In November they represented North Carolina at the

100

second National Club Congress in Chicago. Edna Tatum and
Marie Cashwell, the winning Sampson clothing team, also
made the trip. In Chicago they demonstrated the uses of pat-
terns in making suitable garments for rural girls. Eight other
states sent special delegates into this noncompetitive demon-
stration.

The home economics girls from this state were in national
competition. Maude Rodgerson won third place in the bread
contest. Sallie Herring took second place in the 4-H Members
Style Show following a banquet at the new Drake Hotel. Twelve
states entered this first national fashion show which was di-
rected by North Carolina's Maude Wallace. Geneva Amundson
of Wisconsin won. The other highlight of the week for the 1,250
delegates was the presence of President Coolidge for their an-
nual parade at the Livestock Exposition. No North Carolina
boys were present, but the Patterson brothers of Rowan won
three top ribbons for corn entered in the special Grain and Hay
Show of the Exposition.

Miss Wallace's selection as director of the first club dress
revue in Chicago stemmed from several accomplishments —
chiefly her clothing circular for girls, published in March 1924
and used in the Short Course sewing classes for white and
Negro girls that summer. At the 1923 National Club Congress,
moreover, she had exhibited a selection of clothing made by
some of her Rowan County girls.

Other national recognition came to Tar Heel Club members
during 1924. A national club honor roll included the names of
Dorothy Yount, a deceased Lincoln County poultry member
who had developed the Yount strain of Rhode Island Reds;
Catawba's highly praised Bunyon Love; and Minson Lockamy
of Sampson County. Young Lockamy had personally organized
a club of 16 members in his community of Oakhurst. The son of
a tenant farmer, he hoped eventually to attend State College
and had opened a bank account with club earnings for that
purpose.

Not all of the special recognition came to an agent or to
boys and girls. Jersey Cattle or Baby Beef Clubs were prosper-
ing in about a dozen counties from the mountains to the coastal
plains. On the R. L. Shuford farm in Catawba, two Negro boys,
William and George Wilson, began a Jersey Club of their own
with the assistance of J. W. Hendricks, the state's genius in this
work. Bread made by boys won first and second premiums in

101

Gray

contests in Craven, Duplin,
Halifax, and Edgecombe coun-
ties. A large scale corn picking
contest, established to chal-
lenge the skill of other boys,
was held in Iredell County in
November.

The traditional corn contest
and show were not replaced by
this particular new competition.
An instructive combination of
causes can be cited, however,
for Kirby's emphasis of this -
new style of contest beginning ..
in July. For one thing, the 1924
corn wisdom, validated by ex-
tensive testing, prized healthy stalks rather than beautiful, uni-
form ears as the source of good seed corn; apt autumn picking
was the essence of grain economy as well as the only way to
select next spring's best seed. Furthermore, Kirby was a corn
man himself. It was not he who came up with the idea of com-
petitive corn picking though. It was I. O. Schaub. July 1 he
began work as the new Director of Extension, succeeding B. W.
Kilgore who had accepted the position of Dean of the School of
Agriculture. Always conscious of the unfilled-out theory of the
early corn club work in which he had taken the lead in this
state, Schaub never missed a chance to give the corn project
more scientific integrity.

It was also his knack to put his administrative house in
new order. Prior to leaving his USDA post to return to his
native state and alma mater, he had had a hand in several
important staff reassignments. These developments may have
actually been as determinative as the foul weather in the year's
club program. Four of these changes deserve special mention.
In January, veteran State Farm Agent C. R. Hudson had taken
charge of Extension's services for the state's Negro population.
The various camps and short courses introduced into the Negro
Club schedule during the summer were a direct result of his
already demonstrated support of similar programs for white
youth. The new State Farm Agent was James M. Gray, an
excellent choice and formerly the district farm agent who had
been Mr. Hudson's most club-conscious man. He had shown a

102

special talent for creating club spirit without reducing the scien-
tific or business bases of club work. Kirby responded to this
interest of State Agent Gray in the attempt to introduce the
cheerleading contest into 1924's Short Course plans.

Both Gray and Mrs. McKimmon became Assistant Direc-
tors of Extension. This meant that not only Kirby but Maude
Wallace as well would be finding their responsibilities in-
creased. While McKimmon did not separate herself from the
clubs for girls, Miss Wallace clearly took firmer control. For
example, she moved quickly to give North Carolina a more
dramatic impact on the national club scene. If anything ac-
complished during this complex year was a special result of
Kirby's increased power, it was the good harvest of project
records in a bad crop year.

Agents in 60 counties reported a total of 2,804 members,
1,525 or 54 percent of whom sent in complete records. This level
of activity compared favorably to Wray's membership of 2,518,
which belonged to a total of 124 organized clubs in 22 counties.
Better than 61 percent of this membership finished its work. For
the first time since World War I, enrollment in the clubs for girls
was higher than in home demonstration clubs for women. In 52
counties 13,050 girls were enrolled in a total of 563 clubs. Project
completion figures were not recorded. In 6 counties where Negro
home agents were active, a total of 2,495 girls belonged to 43
clubs. The total state club membership for 1924 stood at 20,867.
This figure, like most club figures for the year, had never been
higher. The national club growth also set a new record.

With one modification to be noted directly, the surprisingly
good North Carolina club figures for 1924 also indicated the
level of club activity during the last year of this prolonged,
active decade. 1925 was mostly a year of acquired momentum in
the state's budding 4-H program, however. There was no active
new promotion in newspapers. In the variety of projects, camp-
ing and the club tour, the revived and combined state Short
Courses for white members, the State Fair demonstrations and
judging contests climaxing complex county and district elimi-
nations, and in the recognition of outstanding members, this
year was a triumphant summation of the best club efforts since
1915. Poultry was still the most popular project. Camps outdrew
short courses. The 4-H name and emblem had gained an active,
sound reputation.

The old question of who would ultimately take the lead in

103

the club organization was still alive too. Before the end of 1925
this matter would be more critical than ever before. The year
began calmly though. With Kirby's decision to return to the
Agronomy Department which was seriously under staffed, As-
sistant Director and State Farm Agent Gray simply let the
Agricultural Clubs fall into his own busy hands. Not since the
last 2 years of T. E. Browne's tenure had a more preoccupied
person been looked to for club leadership. John D. Wray was
operating the Negro clubs under Mr. Hudson's guidance; Miss
Wallace took her orders from Mrs. McKimmon. The record does
not indicate that Mr. Gray called upon either Wray, whose
experience was longest, or Wallace, whose success was estab-
lished. He did not depend on Kirby either, who was again near
death with flu. The truth of the matter may be that both Direc-
tor Schaub and Mr. Gray were trying to see what would happen
if Raleigh really left the clubs to the county agents. In contrast
to the World War I years when this had first been tried, there
was an organization out there in 1925. Which way it was actu-
ally headed, no one knew. One early indication that the wait-
and-see posture was potentially fatal came in the Negro clubs.
By mid-summer this organized work had almost disappeared.
One reason was the raw rural economy stemming from the pre-
vious year's disastrous weather.

Among white boys and girls, there were several exceptional
advances, however. At the annual Short Course, attended by
175 girls and 64 boys, "the crying need of recreation leadership
among rural children" was heeded. In keeping with recent camp
programs, as well as the short courses held just before the war,
Maude Wallace arranged for recreation classes to be taught by
J. F. Miller, the College director of athletics, and his assistant
W. C. Parker. It was she who also undertook at this 1925 Short
Course in Raleigh the adoption of an official club uniform for
North Carolina girls. In EFN for July, she observed: "Each of
the girls taking the clothing work made a white uniform to wear
to the club meeting back home. These leaders will teach other
girls how to make the uniform so that all club members will
soon have such a uniform on hand for the regular club gather-
ings."

The top girl demonstrators at the State Fair were attired in
these new uniforms when they posed for the photographers.
Singled out for special attention were Evelyn Huggins and
Eloise Pruette of Cleveland County, winners of the state's first

104

health demonstration, and the clothing champions from Cum-
berland— Marion Smith and Thelma Bullard. As the highest
scoring individuals on any of the 22 teams, Evelyn and Marion
were awarded free trips to a national camp for club girls
planned for Washington during the summer of 1926.

The novelty of the health demonstration given by the girls
from Cleveland County was not simply in their subject; these
uniformed girls actually sang their introductory material. Empha-
sis of club singing and club songs, which had been heard prior
to World War I, had been echoed by Maude Wallace in August
1925. "Take some old familiar tune," she had written, "and set
some words to this tune, something to show the sentiment of
our 4-H club work. Work on this song at the club meetings or
individually, and then submit it to your agent. When he or she
may think the efforts are worthy, we would like to have them
sent to this office. Would it not be fine to think that you had the
honor of representing your county in the writing of the State
club song." Acting in this matter as the state spokesman, this
capable woman stressed cooperation and local initiative. She
ended her article by reminding the agents and members alike of
the series of 4-H award pins to which persevering boys and girls
were entitled. Maude Wallace's thoughts about the importance
of singing and the value of club awards recalled earlier club
campaigns by Homer Mask and Sammy Kirby. It was also true
that unprecedented developments in the North Carolina club
story were at hand.

Tin cans had not been entirely replaced by glass jars for home use,
as this canning demonstration in Pender County shows.

105

Ill

LEARNING

"Teach them to make experiments and to learn by
the use of their own eyes and brains. They will, if
properly led, astonish you by their efforts and
growth."

Daniel Harvey Hill,
Agriculture for Beginners (1903)

Dairy judging teams at work during 1932 Short Coui-se; the bam stood
on the site of the present-day Coliseum.

107

That New Year's Day

The record peacetime enrollments of 1924 and 1925 sug-
gested to many observers that bad crop years were not neces-
sarily bad club years for rural North Carolina's youth. Others
felt that these club figures were largely false, being school rolls
merely transferred to club record sheets by busy men and
women in some counties. The impossibility, in fact, of maintain-
ing the reported level of activity, whatever its legitimacy, ap-
peared first in the scuttling of the clubs for Negro boys and
girls. This unfortunate reckoning was not due to the state's
upset agricultural economy alone, however. On June 30, 1923
the Smith-Lever Act had reached maturity; the result had been
that no further increases in federal funds had come through it
to the North Carolina Extension Service, regardless of local
economic conditions or fluctuations in club membership. Fol-
lowing the disruption of Mr. Wray's work during the summer of
1925, the real consequences of the complex economic forces were
felt elsewhere; while the State Fair was not canceled, it was
nearly a failure despite emergency funding by Governor Angus
W. McLean and the City of Raleigh.

As the relentless autumn winds and early frost husked
October and November, an even more general crisis developed
in Raleigh and Greensboro. By Thanksgiving hardly the pith of
white or black state leadership in either agricultural or home
economics clubs remained intact. Ending a decade of truly
yeoman service among Tar Heel Negroes, John D. Wray left for
Florida and a new job at the State Agricultural College. At
N. C. State the far briefer term of State Farm Agent and As-
sistant Director James M. Gray as State Agricultural Club
Agent was also ending. He was not resigning; but as of the new
year. Director Schaub, his boss, would be taking on additional
responsibilities as Dean of the School of Agriculture, thus fill-
ing Gray's already busy hands with adult Extension matters.
Jane S. McKimmon would be similarly affected by the new
duties of Dean Schaub as more of his chores as Director began
to cross her desk. That was not her only quandary, however. In
early November her most valuable assistant in club leadership
had asked for and received a year's leave of absence. Miss Wal-
lace's leave was to begin on January 1, 1926, the same day the
Director would be adding Dean to his title.

That New Year's Day was also the day L. R. Harrill began

108

his new job as North Carolina's first State 4-H Leader. Schaub
had selected this Cleveland County native in November, during
that flurry of personnel decisions. Who else had been considered
for the new position is unclear. No one was hired to replace Mr.
Wray. There is no record of C. R. Hudson's part in either of
these decisions. What was clear to Schaub was the capability of
the 29-year-old Harrill, who had known club work, including 4-H,
during the several stages of his life.

At Lattimore young Harrill had belonged to the Cotton
Club. Before the onset of the boll weevil and World War I, this
membership had provided him the means of attending State
College. There he had been esteemed a fine fellow to have
around, neither a book worm nor a social fiend, yet one who
naturally took part in numerous campus activities including the
Agricultural Club and the Leazer Literary Society. Five days
after his 1922 graduation with a Bachelor of Science in general
agriculture, he had gone to work in Buncombe as this state's
first full-time assistant county agent. Mrs. Vanderbilt paid his
annual salary of $1,200; the Asheville Civitan Club funded his
transportation. During the remainder of 1922 and 1923 his guid-
ance helped place that county's boys and girls in the forefront
of club work and play in North Carolina. The pages of EFN
reported this success, often in Mr. Harrill's own words. A high
level of enrollment, good project records, pioneer work in baby
beef and Irish potatoes, encouragement of leaders and identifi-
cation of sponsors, annual fairs and awards programs, out-
standing traditional corn shows, and club encampments in
addition to the training of various demonstration teams: these
activities characterized his active program. He was blessed with
valuable associates too, especially Annie Rankin Clement, the
seasoned home agent whose established leadership in home
economics clubs and cooperative work with farm agents made
her a good teacher for a beginning Extension worker.

Mr. Harrill, after leaving Asheville in early 1924, had
worked briefly with a crop dusting company in the state's cot-
ton belt. By the fall of that year, however, he was back at his
alma mater as a graduate student in agronomy. This work
agreed with him. Having written a thesis entitled "The Effects
of Nitrate of Soda on the Germinating Qualities of Seed Pota-
toes," in June 1925 he took his Master's Degree. If this ad-
vanced degree gave the former county club agent an edge in
Schaub's search for North Carolina's first 4-H Leader, it was an

109

appropriate advantage; for it had been the budding Irish potato
culture of Buncombe County that had introduced the new man
to the subject of his research. The other special quality which
probably had swayed the Director in favor of Mr. Harrill was
his demonstrated interest in organized recreation.

Both Schaub and Gray joined Harrill at work the first day
of 1926, despite the holiday season. Their lengthy discussion
can be reconstructed from office notes. It was the new man's job
to pull together what remained of the Agricultural Clubs and
unite them with the Home Economics Clubs into a statewide
4-H program. This union was not to be hastily undertaken,
however. It was his responsibility, in broader terms, to place
4-H Clubs for boys and girls on par with adult Extension pro-
grams in North Carolina and on par with 4-H in certain other
southern states. Schaub drew upon his own knowledge of this
region in directing the attention of Mr. Harrill to Oklahoma,
Louisiana, Arkansas, and Kentucky as states with club organi-
zations worthy of study.

By the end of his first work day, it seemed to the new 4-H
Leader that his purpose was "mainly making farmers out of
boys." In his diary he made no specific mention of his responsi-
bility for the club girls. Perhaps this omission was due to the
absence that day of Mrs. McKimmon or a female assistant at
the men's discussion. Mr. Harrill probably realized, moreover,
that he as a young, single man would not quickly find accep-
tance as a leader of home economics activities anywhere in
North Carolina. While this problem, intensified by the leave of
Maude Wallace, would deter him in the realization of his pri-
mary objective, other, even more important matters had been
discussed during that office conference. Four of these in particu-
lar must be mentioned.

As experience had taught all three men, the official adop-
tion of 4-H and its symbolism for the statewide youth program
would encounter some resistance in North Carolina. During the
past decade as 4-H was receiving a wide range of usage, certain
people including some Extension personnel had preferred a club
name that more directly identified the source of this youth pro-
gram. "Junior Extension Work" had been their leading sugges-
tion. By 1926, however, "4-H" had prevailed. Mr. Harrill's state
forerunners had favored it. McKimmon, for example, had al-
ways seen the usefulness of 4-H ideals and standards. In Washing-
ton since 1918 Gertrude Warren had led the national campaign.

110

sometimes against powerful odds; but beginning in 1923 federal
club circulars consistently referred to "4-H Club Work" under
her direct influence. Joining forces with Miss Warren had been
the National Committee on Boys and Girls Club Work, organ-
ized in Chicago in 1921 to serve the mutual interests of the pri-
vate sector and USDA. The shape of things to come was clari-
fied further in 1925 with the opening of the National 4-H Supply
Service in the Windy City. For the first time since the introduc-
tion of 4-H canning brands, a nationwide commercial means of
spreading 4-H identity and public awareness was available.
Understandably, then, Schaub and Gray directed Mr. Harrill to
follow his new title — to be, in fact, the State 4-H Leader.

In this work Mr. Harrill's guiding slogan was to be Dr.
Knapp's original demonstration principle of learning by doing.
Schaub, among other older hands, believed that during World
War I and the unstable period after its conclusion Extension
had too often become merely a talking program. This "propa-
ganda" would no longer be tolerated in North Carolina. The
recently successful team demonstration contests at the State
Fair were even suspect. Planned, on-site demonstrations of
proven methods and actual results were recommended to the
leader of the new 4-H program; project work and club recreation
alike were to be rigorous, also.

The third matter discussed by Mr. Harrill and his two
superiors on New Year's Day was directly related to the old
Extension ideal and the new statewide name for youth clubs.
He was instructed to depend on Washington for primary guid-
ance in national programs; the Chicago support of 4-H, on the
other hand, was seen as important but not fundamental. This
policy, with which Mr. Harrill had no direct quarrel, probably
would not have displeased Maude Wallace either, if she had
been present. Although she had taken an active part in the
initial National Club Congress in Chicago, in 1925 she had
elected to send North Carolina's top club girls to a club camp
proposed for Washington in mid-1926.

From January 5 through 15 the state's farm and home
agents were to hold their annual joint meeting in Raleigh.
Negro agents were to be in town at the same time. This schedule
of Extension meetings was the holiday agenda's fourth item.
Mr. Harrill was to take a prominent place on the various pro-
grams, in each case to emphasize to the county personnel the
matters that had been outlined to him. He was to be bold and

111

decisive, assured of the support of his bosses, including Mrs.
McKimmon. Mr. I. W. Hill would be on hand from Washington
to lend federal support. President Brooks of State College would
be there, too.

In these terms that busy day of resolutions ended, but it
had begun, in truth, one in a long series of green, then growing,
and finally great years of ultimately statewide, active 4-H in
North Carolina.

The Green Years: 1926-1939

We know that leguminous plants convert atmospheric ni-
trogen into a form that is useful to other plants. Clover is a
legume — unexcelled as forage for livestock, unequalled in the
renovating influences it exerts upon the soil in which its long
roots penetrate. Corn, not having this enriching power, should
be planted in rotation with clover. Youth also benefit from
clover intercropping. Today 4-H is society's best example of this
proven agricultural relationship.

During the green years it was L. R. Harrill's first job to
convince old and new county or local farm and home agents
that the clover program's season had finally come. With more
central authority than either Homer Mask or S. J. Kirby had
had, he would implant the 4-H organizational method and pro-
grams county-by-county. Such was the existing disarray that he
would start as if from scratch with four demonstration counties
in 1926. By 1939, fully three decades after the state's first prom-
ise of 4-H had been made in Hertford County, he and his deter-
mined associates had organized every county in North Caro-
lina. The chill that had fallen by the end of 1925 over the
preparatory developments in the various clubs since 1909
turned 1926-1939 into years of renewal— the long, welcome spring-
time of Tar Heel 4-H.

On a larger scale these were the stern years of the Great
Depression; the complex programs of Roosevelt's New Deals,
including both of the national Agricultural Adjustment Acts
and rural electrification; of radio's popular acceptance; and the
onset far away of that vast borrow show, the Second World
War. In North Carolina these years witnessed the rise of an
enduring native playwright in Paul Green and the recognition
as well as the untimely death of Asheville novelist Thomas

112

Wolfe. Duke University Medical Center flourished, and major
vacation or conservation areas took shape in all three geograph-
ical areas of the state. In the piedmont, consolidation of the
major public college campuses in Raleigh, Greensboro, and
Chapel Hill formed The Greater University of North Carolina.
These developments in a state still predominantly rural also
suggest the various ways 4-H grew during its green years:
gradual consolidation of programs, economic and agricultural
adjustments hand-in-hand with expanded recreational and cul-
tural interests, plus deeper devotion to individual health and
human survival, spiritual as well as physical.

Naturally, however, spring did not come easily. The State
Leader often found the country roads muddy and a school's
schedule in conflict with his particular 4-H designs. Exasper-
ated by conflicts in one of the demonstration counties, he re-
sorted to showing silent movies at night in order to attract
potential 4-H members. The boys and girls there or elsewhere
were not Mr. Harrill's real problem, though. His club vision was
most often blocked by unprofessional men and women at the
county level — agents who lacked training, interest, and the will
to experiment or cooperate. Agents in the same county were
even at odds, he discovered; and nowhere was money for 4-H
plentiful. His own salary in 1926, for example, was $1,350; and
the total cost of his varied activities came to only $2,180.14. Of

^'■f^l if l-ty

A model club meeting during the summer of 1928 near Burgaw. Boys,
girls, and adults attended.

113

this moderate amount, $786.67 paid for travel. And travel,
almost relentless motion, characterized Mr. Harrill's first year.

The uncooperative county personnel whom he discussed
frankly with Schaub in an April conference at State College
was a particular disappointment to both men. For at the
Raleigh meetings of local and county agents in January,
pledges of better relations had been made. At that time, bol-
stered by his New Year's Day briefing and supported especially
by I. W. Hill and N. C. State's President Brooks, Mr. Harrill had
gained broad verbal support. Hill had been effective in portray-
ing North Carolina's recent 4-H heritage as a good bridge to a
lasting state youth organization. President Brooks, having
served previously as the state's Superintendent of Public In-
struction, endorsed 4-H and its continued reliance upon the
rural schools for membership and meeting places as well as
local leadership. He actually made rounds with the new State
Leader in seeking the cooperation of white and Negro agents
alike. There were thought to be 40,000 boys and girls eligible for
statewide enrollment by the April 1 deadline.

The selection of the four demonstration counties for the
renewal of 4-H was the best result of that January meeting. For
one thing, experience had already proven that not all verbal
agreements could be depended on. Moreover, some efficient
means was needed for the education of the skeptical, and Mr.
Harrill himself wanted a few cases for special observation and
assistance. One county in each of the five farm districts of the
state had been requested. In each case the county should have a
home and a farm agent, both of whom would be willing and
funded to devote time to 4-H. In the Central District no such
county could be found, but conditions were greener everywhere
else. Pasquotank with G. W. Falls and Edna Evans in the North-
eastern, Robeson with O. O. Dukes and Beth Andrews in the
Southeastern, Davidson in the Piedmont with C. A. Sheffield
and Elizabeth Cornelius, and Polk with J. W. Artz and Florence
Cox in the Mountain District accepted the new challenges of the
clover. Still there was one reservation. In proposing Robeson for
this demonstration. District Agent E. W. Gaither had said to
Mr. Harrill: "If it will work in this county, it will work in any
county in the state, but I don't believe you can make it go."

Making 4-H go meant that no North Carolinian was more
active than the man destined to become Mr. 4-H. Not only was
he steadily making the rounds to these four counties; along his

114

route he stopped as well in 50 additional counties where interest
in 4-H was evident. His very first stop, as a matter of fact, was
in Cumberland County. There he visited seven schools during
the last week in January 1926. This county's home economics
girls had been very outstanding and well organized for a num-
ber of years. Their busy home agent promised to promote 4-H
"insofar as it did not interfere with her work." More cooperative
was N. B. Stevens, the farm agent, who hoped to organize sev-
eral 4-H clubs in the county, placing special emphasis on the
swine project.

Probably because of District Agent Gaither's challenge, Mr.
Harrill spent considerable time in Robeson that first year; and
he eventually proved his friendly skeptic wrong there. David-
son's 4-H clubs with 400 members in nine communities thrived
best of all, while Polk and Pasquotank in various ways disap-
pointed both themselves and Mr. Harrill.

It is not clear, however, that he learned more about organiz-
ing 4-H from the four demonstration counties than from the
much larger and more varied group of 50. In Wake County, for
example, in the company of the farm and home agent Mr. Har-
rill ran headlong into a social problem that statewide 4-H would
only slowly overcome. His diary for February 10 noted his bad
luck:

Spent the day with Mr. Anderson. This county seems
to be a Jonah for club work. We went out to a strictly

The camp at White Lake.

115

rural school and met with very keen interest but little,
if any, response. Mrs. Mclnnes accompanied us and
demanded that the girls be separated from the boys.
So it seems that there is hard sledding ahead for
organized club work in Wake County.

Within the week he was making another attempt to organize
Wake, but it was still wintertime on the question of a joint 4-H
program in that county and elsewhere.

By 1926, of course, ample evidence of joint club ventures,
many of them avowedly 4-H, had been published and positively
evaluated all over North Carolina. Camps, demonstration
teams, club tours, and state short courses for both boys and
girls were on record. Excluding the home economics clubs for
white girls, club youth had always included both sexes. Why,
then, did this uncooperativeness on the part of the most out-
standing home agents, as in Cumberland and Wake, appear in
1926 as never before?

There are several partial answers. These home agents and
their home economics girls were not nearly as needful of a
renewed organization as were farm or local agents and their
boys in particular. Club success for years had turned into a
largely female story in North Carolina. For women agents the
new prospect of a statewide 4-H program led by a young man
seemed more like busy work than anything else, especially since
the girls had embraced 4-H ideals already under the leadership
of Mrs. McKimmon and Maude Wallace. Moreover, there were
surely some parents who would end their daughters' club
careers rather than condone the joint club concept now pro-
posed by Mr. Harrill. In short, a hasty or complete transition to
4-H, however much it might stimulate the club life of rural boys,
was seen by some as posing a threat to the accomplished work
among Tar Heel girls. All along since McKimmon had achieved
professional success by steady but wisely restrained expansion.
Her old wisdom in 1926 was sometimes interpreted as hardheaded-
ness.

In fact, Mr. Harrill saw considerable evidence of the cus-
tomary, joint 4-H work and play during the summer of 1926.
Club photographs in EFN picture boys and girls together. The
state Short Course held at State College, July 5-10, provided 104
boys and 285 girls with mutual social, dramatic, recreational,
and instructional opportunities. He was assisted by District

116

Home Agent Martha Creighton in supervising this event. Approxi-
mately 35 camps involving at least 1,600 boys and girls were
also held, the most important ones taking place at the new
regional camp that had been developed through admirable coopera-
tion at White Lake. Club boys and girls as well as agents and
Bladen County citizens had made this 1925 dream a reality by
the summer of 1926. The State Leader was a regular camper at
this site and elsewhere.

Additional evidence of cooperation was apparent in the
September announcement that Rosetta Turner of Rockingham
and Raymond Watson of Craven County would be the state's
first representatives to the Leadership Training School at Camp
Vail in Massachusetts. While North Carolina had no State Fair
in 1926, 4-H club fairs, in addition to county fairs, were put on
in Polk, Iredell, and Buncombe by both boys and girls. Polk,
under Mr. Harrill's personal guidance, also sponsored a suc-
cessful joint club tour into South Carolina.

But when annual report time came in Raleigh, it was neces-
sary to separate the boys from the girls. Mr. Harrill reported
that there were 227 well organized 4-H clubs with a membership
of 3,864 boys. Mrs. McKimmon disclosed that 13,720 girls had
belonged to 624 clubs. Negro youth were accounted separately,
too, but the figures do not reveal an active club program. It is
recorded, however, that a summer Short Course attended by 127
girls and some boys was held in Greensboro during the summer
of 1926.

Whenever Mr. Harrill wrote or spoke of that first green
year, he accentuated the positive, but he had in fact grown tired
and angry more than once along the way. There to brighten the
route, in addition to the items already pointed out, were a couple
of important signs pointing to the future. One was the willing-
ness of the railroads to offer club members special rates to and
from Raleigh or Greensboro for state events. Another hearten-
ing experience for him was also related to the train. In keeping
with Dean Schaub's desires, Mr. Harrill visited Oklahoma and
Louisiana in order to study 4-H in action in other places. Evi-
dence of their joint program carried on by cooperative, trained
personnel gave him more confidence in this state's 4-H destiny.
Probably nothing gladdened him more, however, than the news
from Robeson County. When the commissioners met in August
to consider renewing the appropriations for Home Demonstra-
tion work, the delegation of proponents included boys and girls

117

from six organized 4-H Clubs with a total membership of 200.
The Robeson commissioners voted "aye."

In this once doubtful county and elsewhere, however, 4-H
renewal was not continuous; some years were greener than oth-
ers. Particularly progressive years statewide were 1929, 1931,
1936, and 1939. Throughout this era of hard times it would be
the charmed destiny of 4-H to take hold among North Caro-
lina's rural youth by making certain that they balanced their
budget of work and play. In February 1927 appeared Mr. Har-
rill's first 4-H publication, an amply illustrated and detailed
bulletin on camps and camping. In May EFN began a regular
page entitled "Among Carolina Club Members." By June camp-
ing was thriving at White Lake and in other settings. The Short
Course emphasized recreation as never before, with John Brad-
ford of the Recreation Association of America teaching classes
to a majority of the 606 boys and girls in attendance. A unique
feature of the 1927 course were the reports of this state's first
four delegates to National Club Camp; there the official 4-H
pledge had been selected and the original club motto affirmed
anew. Maude Wallace, having returned to her post in November
1926, had accompanied Mr. Harrill to this historic Washington
camp with Lela Paul of Beaufort, Augusta Raymond of Hert-
ford, Wayne's Aaron Peele, and Elton Whitley of Stanly. Attend-

Short Course delegates in 1927 studied recreation under John Brad-
ford, whose campus classroom was the shaded lawn in front of Holla-
day Hall.

118

ing Camp Vail in September were Catawba's poultry champion
Oliver Smith and Pender's Mary Blake, a home economics
major at Woman's College where she had recently organized the
state's first Collegiate 4-H Club. As in 1926 there was no State
Fair, but several new club fairs were recorded. In November

This state's first National Camp delegates were accompanied to
Washington by Mr. Harrill and his associate Maude Wallace.

119

1927, Miss Wallace judged the home economics exhibits at
National Club Congress in Chicago and again conducted the
4-H style show during the annual club banquet. No Tar Heel
youth went with her, but one club girl from Halifax and two
from Cleveland counties won cash awards in the national can-
ning exhibit sponsored by the Hazel-Atlas Glass Company.

There were also more localized signs of project success, par-
ticularly with dairy calves. In Alamance County separate clubs
of white and Negro youth boasted of having the world's largest
Jersey clubs. EFN printed the claims as truth, and the Negro
youth exhibited 14 of their best calves from the club stock of 63
at the Mebane Fair. Under the sharp eye of Allen Oliver, other
4-H'ers gathered six blue ribbons at the Madison Square
Garden Poultry Show. While Catawba's traditional place of
preeminence in poultry went unchallenged except by neighbor-
ing Lincoln, Craven County made national news when its
young Raymond Watson became the first boy anywhere to feed
and ship by rail a carload of demonstration pigs. And as girls
statewide made clothing and home furnishing projects popular,
campaigns in nutrition, especially those emphasizing milk-for-
health and curb marketing, made healthy eating habits a lead-
ing concern. The novelty among 4-H projects in 1927 was fores-
try, however, with four boys under specialist R. W. Graeber's
guidance pioneering it in Catawba's fertile club soil.

In 1928 when two of these boys, brothers Emmett and
George Turbyfill, reported their profits in thinning an acre of
spruce or Virginia pine near Maiden, the new prospect of farm-
ing the forest did not supplant the importance of field crops in
4-H. Corn and cotton as well as tobacco and gardening were
popular and economical projects once more. Nonetheless it was
forestry and nature study that shared the club schedule with
recreation at the 1928 4-H camps and the Short Course in
Raleigh.

Remote from Mr. Harrill's mind was the quandary of
former club leaders Mask and Kirby, for that an active camping
season was not an enemy of the annual Short Course now
seemed clear. Both features of the summer 4-H program, in
addition to National Camp, were ways of stimulating the mem-
bership when the rural schools were closed and club morale
might lapse. Evidence of Mr. Harrill's broad expectations was
ample by the fall of 1928. Not only had the camping routines
become more vigorous, but strict attendance rules, based like

120

those of the early 1920s on members' project records, had also
been reinstated. Moreover, 4-H'ers themselves had taken more
charge of Short Course. Older members served as group leaders,
and on Friday evening the first slate of state officers in a
decade had been elected: Hertford's Frank Raymond, president;
Pasquotank's Mildred Ives, vice president; Davidson's Kathleen
Mock, secretary-treasurer; and its Joe Graver, historian. Prior to
the voting, it had been decided that both boys and girls would
be represented on the slate. This joint state organization had
been achieved, Mr. Harrill observed, by the election of 4-H'ers
from three counties of note in early club and 4-H history.

Short Course's recreation classes for older members had
been led by Ella Gardner of the Children's Bureau in the U.S.
Department of Labor; Walter T. Cartier, Charlotte's Park Com-
missioner, exercised the younger boys and girls. District agents
and college faculty, with one exception, took charge of the other
classes. The exception was well-known lyricist Fannie Bucha-
nan whose 4-H songs were just beginning to be sung nation-
wide. She taught music appreciation, stressing what to sing and
how to sing it. At the twice-daily assemblies, her success was
celebrated song after song.

Suggestive of the group enthusiasm generated by this or-

4-H play had joined club work for these Hertford County boys and
girls by the summer of 1928.

121

ganized recreation, a committee of three boys, three girls, and
Miss Gardner, Mr. Cartier, Miss Buchanan, Maude Wallace,
and Mr. Harrill planned the state's first large campfire and
candle-lighting service for that Thursday evening. Every gen-
eration of future North Carolina 4-H'ers has followed their 1928
gleam.

That worshipful event, the election of state officers the fol-
lowing evening, and something that had happened in June
reflected the ability of Mr. Harrill in particular to inspire young
leaders. During National Club Camp, Tar Heel 4-H'ers had been
able to join their four delegates and the national youth enroll-
ment of 620,000 in a radio broadcast from the campsite in
Washington on June 23. Through EFN Mr. Harrill had seen to
the statewide scheduling of that month's 4-H meetings to make
this unprecedented radio transmission as meaningful as pos-
sible.

The numerous benefits which S. J. Kirby had discovered in
club journalism were also still serviceable; every opportunity
was taken, as in the announcement of the Camp Vail delegates,
to commend the winners and inspire the membership at large.
In the long run, however, the best 4-H news in 1928 was finan-
cial. In February the establishment of the Jane S. McKimmon
Loan Fund had been announced. Actual loans to college-bound
rural girls interested in home economics would begin as soon as
the investment, begun by club women the preceding Christmas,
had been collected. Of more general and immediate interest, on
July 1 the new federal funds provided by the Capper-Ketcham
Act arrived in Raleigh. The $20,000 without offset by the state
was the first new federal relief for Extension since the maturity
of Smith-Lever in 1923. Subsequent annual appropriations
based on a state's percentage of rural population had been ear-
marked by the same legislation. The third piece of good eco-
nomic news was the return of the State Fair in 1928. Although
4-H participation was very limited, the new format promised
good premiums for another year. As a matter of fact, the club
fairs which Mr. Harrill had encouraged 4-H'ers to put on in 1926
and 1927 had become rather largescale operations during 1928.
He referred to 10 of these events as the state's first 4-H Achieve-
ment Days.

Certain club developments of 1928 were not achievements
to celebrate, however. At the year's end, both Assistant Director
James M. Gray and Home Agent Maude Wallace announced

122

their immediate resignations. He became the educational officer
of Chilean Nitrate; she was hired as Virginia's new State Home
Agent. Neither was directly replaced in Raleigh. In his new job,
Mr. Gray's direct supervisor would be Homer Mask. From this
combination of personnel 4-H gained numerous financial bene-
fits. Perhaps Mrs. McKimmon's loss was greater than anyone's
gain, however, for her most valuable assistant was leaving
within a few months of the sudden death of Mr. McKimmon in
July.

That same December, Allen G. Oliver had died also, losing
his short bout with heart disease at his Raleigh home. "I heard
he was sick and I have brought these two hens to him. All that I
have, he taught me to make." The Wake County woman who
spoke these respectful words at the Oliver front door understood
the life's work of this exceptional man. No one had done more
than he to put North Carolina's practical poultry business on
its feet.

For the fourth year of organized 4-H, Mr. Harrill reported
that 65 counties with a total of 317 bona fide clubs had an enroll-
ment of 6,817 boys and girls taking more than 7,500 projects.
Approximately 61 percent of this organized membership turned
in completed records. The State Leader also identified 501 local
4-H leaders, both white and Negro, who had been trained in 106
different meetings across the state. In the most recently organ-
ized counties, the county agents estimated that they and their
leaders had reached about eight times as many rural youth as
they had been able to when most club work had been unorgan-
ized. But in fact this less efficient and less sociable style of 4-H
still affected numerous young people; and they, plus Negro and
white organized youth, in addition to the home economics girls,
brought the grand total 4-H membership to 27,793 and the
number of distinct clubs to 1,189 for 1929.

The club system would not stay that confusing, however. In
October Elizabeth Cornelius, the successful home agent in David-
son, had been brought onto the state staff in Raleigh. Up until
then, with Miss Wallace gone, Mr. Harrill had had experienced
Martha Creighton's aid in planning the Short Course and attend-
ing National Club Camp. But with the arrival of Miss Corne-
lius, the original clubs for girls for the first time in North Caro-
lina officially assumed the name 4-H. That alone would improve
operations in the future. Mrs. McKimmon made the vital dis-
tinction in her own annual report: "Four-H Club work with girls

123

under the definite supervision of a specialist was begun in this
division on October 1."

Miss CorneHus' first duty was to renew the State Fair team
demonstrations that had thrived spectacularly in earlier years.
Both the public and Extension praised her quick success. In the
room improvement category, Durham County's girls won first
place, with Richmond, Stanly, and Cleveland finishing in order.
Two other girls from Stanly gave a noncompetitive demonstra-
tion about a club girl's wardrobe, and the Jackson County team
of Ned Tucker and John Sharpe won the 4-H poultry demonstra-
tion.

For his part in the Fair, Mr. Harrill organized 56 entries for
the first 4-H Club Calf Show and supervised the renewal of the
old judging contests. Johnston won in poultry. Buncombe in
livestock, and Pasquotank ranked highest in crop judging.
Jesse Johnson of this team had been the 1928 state corn cham-
pion, and his Weeksville neighbor John Alton Brown was des-
tined to take that honor in 1929, winning a gold medal and a
cash award of $35 from Chilean Nitrate's Educational Bureau
under Jimmy Gray's direction. Mr. Gray's place as Dean
Schaub's Assistant Director, incidentally, had been taken by
C. A. Sheffield, Miss Cornelius's Davidson County colleague.
Thus both the farm and home agent in Mr. Harrill's most suc-
cessful demonstration 4-H county of 1926 had come to State Col-
lege by the end of 1929.

Other 4-H developments of that year are as noteworthy as
the particular success of 4-H'ers at the State Fair. Special men-
tion must be made of advances in camping facilities for the
western counties; the health pageant was also added to the tra-
ditional Short Course program.

In the mountain counties 4-H members had never had the
choice of developed camping facilities available to their flatland
peers. After the opening of the regional camp at White Lake in
1926, however, more attention was paid in the West to a per-
manent campsite. Twelve agriculturally useless acres of the test
farm at the Swannanoa Branch Station were eventually offered
and accepted, in 1928 actually, but the illness of District Agent
John Goodman delayed the construction of even the basic facil-
ities; thus Swannanoa 4-H Camp did not open until June 1929.
The story of its development in the state's high country is with-
out equal as a tribute to improved cooperation, both within
Extension and without.

124

Eventually this rustic pool was laid down and put to good use in front
of Swannanoa's main hall.

It was Henderson County Agent O. B. Jones who first sug-
gested the plan of a permanent camp to Mr. Goodman, who
then sought the approval of Mr. Harrill and Station Superin-
tendent S. C. Clapp before getting State College and the State
Department of Agriculture to designate the actual camp acre-
age. Test Farms Director F. E. Miller endorsed the decisions.
Next, Buncombe County graded a roadway to the site. Commer-
cial agencies, civic bodies, and ordinary individuals donated
money, skill, construction materials, and a large camp stove;
the most generous donors were Chilean Nitrate, Southern Rail-
way, the city of Asheville, and Hendersonville, in addition to
the Lumberman's Association under the leadership of J. M.
English.

Transylvania County Agent P. H. Gaston supervised con-
struction as the weather permitted after Goodman became ill.
A. T. Holman, State College's agricultural engineer, ran the
survey on the steep grade where the large basic building for
recreation, dining, and cooking would stand. Cabins and a
swimming pool were laid off nearby. Buncombe's L. D. Thrash
and District Home Agent Sarah Ellis helped procure supplies
and actual building plans. In April and May the progress was
wonderful at the site, but since no state money was available
for construction of the separate cabins, it was decided to chal-
lenge each county in the district to raise funds for its own camp

125

shelter. When 100 Cleveland County 4-H'ers arrived to christen
the new camp in June, however, no cabin was more than a
working drawing, so everyone slept on straw tick in the main
hall. There was no pool either; and, in keeping with an already
seasoned camp policy, each camper had brought a fee of $1.50,
plus a personal food supply to place in the common pantry.
Whenever meals were to be prepared or removed, everyone
pitched in. Outdoor toilets and kerosene lanterns fitted out the
camp. Yet joy covered the mountainside, for Swannanoa was
growing; and even in its first season it added materially and
spiritually to the state's camping program.

The Raleigh Short Course prospered that summer also — as
never before. Attended by 779 boys and girls, contrasted to
1927's 606 and 1928's 425, the large assembly led by its own
officers published its own daily newspaper, "Tar Heel Club
News," and studied as diligently as it played. Classes were
offered in at least 10 different subjects; instructors were mem-
bers of the college faculty, specialists, agents, and several
guests including Ella Gardner to again teach and lead recrea-
tion, Charles Wells to teach drama and stunts under the auspi-
ces of the American Playground Association, and Geneva
McCachern, a former club girl from Canton, to teach music and
singing. From Washington in addition to Miss Gardner had
come I. W. Hill and Robert G. Foster. He was a federal specialist
in leadership and organization assigned to the New England
states in a capacity similar to Mr. Hill's southern duties. Fos-
ter's work in Raleigh was with adult leaders. Their Short
Course conference he led in discussing this sequence of topics:
"The Standardization of 4-H Club Work," "4-H Club Camps,"
"Records," and "The 4-H Achievement Day." The place or value
of prizes in promoting club work was taken up in his final daily
session with the leaders.

Certainly no feature of the week either drew upon more
aspects of the course or pleased more people than the Thursday
evening health pageant. The club newspaper on Friday told the
original story:

Last night after vesper services, a health pageant was
given by 4-H club members. There were over a
hundred people in the pageant, and it was witnessed
by all club members attending the Short Course and
many visitors from Raleigh.
The pageant was opened by the marching in of every-

126

body in the pageant. After this, the Spirit of Health,
who was Miss Lucy Blake, read a scroll and as she
came to the different parts, these were pantomimed
while the music appreciation class sang the song for
this particular part. When the Spirit of Health had
named the King and Queen of Health, Dr. Charles
O'H. Laughinghouse, with much fervor, crowned
them. The King of Health was Boyce Brooks of
Duplin County. He is 17 years old and made the very
high score of 99.1 in the health examination. The
Queen of Health was Miss Ruth Coleman of Ala-
mance County. She is 16 years old, and her score in
the health examination was 97.9.

After the King and Queen of Health had been
crowned and seated very nicely in their proper places
of honor, the Recreation class danced and sang for
them. When all were again in their places the pro-
gram ended by singing "America the Beautiful."

N. C.'s first king and queen of Health, 1929.

127

Something of the fascination surrounding this coronation
may have been reflected in the election of new state officers on
Friday. King Boyce Brooks became the vice president, joining
Sampson County's Mary Emma Powell as president, Pasquo-
tank's Vernon James as secretary-treasurer, and Louise Hardi-
son of Washington County as historian. It was these outstand-
ing 4-H'ers who were installed during the first campfire and
candlelighting ceremony ever to conclude a State 4-H Short
Course in Raleigh.

That event received national attention in September 1929
when Edmund Aycock, one of the four delegates to that year's
National Camp, returned to Washington to speak on a national
broadcast. The Wayne County native said in part:

In 4-H Club work the candle is the symbol of service
and our last camp fire featured the candle lighting
ceremony. It was a beautiful and inspiring scene as
we all stood about the fire, lighted by Dean Schaub
from the remains of last year's camp fire, and listened
to a heart-to-heart talk by Mr. Harrill, our State 4-H
Club Leader, impressing on our minds the importance
and bigness of the work the 4-H Clubs are designed to
foster. Then, as with lighted candles we formed an
unbroken circle and sang the inspiring "Ploughing
Song" and "Follow the Gleam," we all firmly resolved
to do our part in bringing about better agricultural
conditions in our country.

This resolution was kept that fall by the state sending to
Camp Vail two Catawba County members who were already
self-supporting; Philip Lutz was a successful dairyman, and
Vinnie Lee McComb's success had come in poultry. Within the
month of these two older 4-H'ers return to North Carolina, the
crash of the stock market signalled the onset of the national
Depression. Bringing about now the better agricultural condi-
tions Mr. Harrill had described in early August would strain the
possibilities of young and old members alike. In these uncertain
economic times several important administrative changes also
took place.

As already said, the most important of these was the
October arrival of Miss Cornelius in the state 4-H office.
Another was the departure of L. E. Hall whose outstanding
tenure as Negro district agent had been ended by his resigna-

128

Mitchell

Lowe

tion; he returned to school at Hampton Institute. Appointed to
replace him was veteran local agent J. W. Mitchell. In order
that the overall program for Negro adults and youth might
begin to experience new life, Mr. Hudson and Mrs. McKimmon
arranged for the offices of Mitchell and Mrs. D. F. Lowe, the
Negro Home Agent, to be located at A&T in Greensboro.

Although it was not apparent at first glance, the renewed
success of white 4-H'ers at the State Fair in 1929 coincided
almost exactly with the crumbling of this state and nation's
rural and urban economy. Would the spirit of spring survive?

If good club enrollment statistics, the continuation of all
existing programs, and a successful 1930 State Fair composed a
dependable answer. North Carolina 4-H'ers said "yes." The
operative slogan was "live-at-home" once more. Almost 68 per-
cent of the membership of 26,638 boys and girls from a record
83 counties completed their projects in 35 subjects ranging from
livestock, field crops, and home economics to community, farm,
and home improvements. In the latter category alone, 151 clubs
in 17 counties conducted community service projects, a new
activity, which mainly beautified school and home grounds.
Statewide there were 981 organized 4-H Clubs in 1930. No

129

separate figures for Negro 4-H'ers appear in the project produc-
tion records, all of which were impressive. At 49.4 bushels an
acre, the club corn yield was more than twice the state average.
Boys and girls made an average of 141 bushels of Irish potatoes
on an acre; the state average was 98. In sweet potatoes, too,
4-H'ers were ahead by a comparable margin. The club cotton
harvest came to almost three times the lint average statewide,
according to proud Mr. Harrill, who knew that 4-H homes
across North Carolina would have ample food and fiber what-
ever the economic situation.

Other important developments in 1930 were further consol-
idation within Extension, more club recreation, and the intro-
duction of reforestation among club members. By reducing the
total number of farm and home districts to four, with supervi-
sory farm and home agents assigned to each one, Dean Schaub
saw a way to even more efficient organization. In each of the
new Southeastern, Northeastern, Southwestern, and North-
western districts, there were approximately 25 counties.
Coupled with the arrivals of Mr. Harrill in 1926 and Miss Cor-
nelius in 1929, this was the third, though indirect, improvement
in the overall 4-H organization under Schaub's administration.

Club girls from Rutherford, Buncombe, and Madison going through
morning exercises at Swannanoa in July 1930.

130

Mr. Harrill stands near the door at right in a Dramatics Institute held
in Asheville in May 1930.

It was the State 4-H Leader and his assistant who organ-
ized popular schools of recreation in each of the new districts
during 1930's spring. Mr. Harrill was assisted by Jack Knapp of
the National Recreation Association, and Ella Gardner came
from Washington to aid Miss Cornelius. Their inviting theme
was easy to understand: "However hard the time, living well at
home also means playing more in order to get the most out of
life." This lesson applied away from home too, especially at 4-H
Camp. In 1930 nearly 3,000 boys and girls from 45 counties
camped, a majority of them gathering at White Lake or at
Swannanoa, which now offered campers its rustic pool and
county cabins. At Short Course and in booths and demonstra-
tions at the State Fair in October, Mr. Harrill's same theme of
dutiful playing turned up prominently.

It was the Short Course delegation of 800 4-H'ers and lead-
ers that took up the club reforestation project, having been
urged by Governor O. Max Gardner to become "tree setters
rather than tree sitters." In furtherance of this active challenge,
Mr. Harrill led the delegation in planting an elm on the Col-
lege's old quadrangle in honor of I. O. Schaub. Despite the early
August heat, the 4-H Leader implored the tree not to die, con-
vincing the assembled youth in this way that the ceremonial
elm's prospering would suggest the devotion of each of them to
the Governor's request. The elm survived for a few years and so
did the campaign. (Later a substitute elm was planted.)

131

Once again "Tar Heel Club News" kept the large 1930 cam-
pus group informed; other features of the course included the
traditional streetcar tour of Raleigh with Colonel Fred Olds
guiding as he had done almost annually since World War I, a
water carnival on campus, the second annual health pageant
on Riddick Field, and a new set of state officers installed there
in candlelight on Friday after the usual East-West baseball
game — won as always by the hillbillies. The score was 10 to 5.
No routine classes of the week outranked those in recreation
taught by Mr. Harrill and Ruth Current, the Iredell Home
Agent who had assisted Ella Gardner in 1929. In the evenings,
the class members themselves took charge of the 4-H'ers' group
games. Another appealing activity was drama; four county
delegations presented one-act plays, boys and girls taking all
the parts and directing each show well. Also popular were the
real life accounts given by the four National Camp representa-
tives. Iredell's Lena Early, who had compiled North Carolina's
first winning record in 4-H recreation, was especially good with
the crowd.

Miss Early's leadership was pointed out again in the fall; at
State Teachers College in Harrisburg, Virginia, she organized
as a freshman, with encouragement from Maude Wallace, a
Campus 4-H Club like the one at Woman's College in Greens-
boro. North Carolina's Camp Vail delegates were from Pasquo-
tank and Polk, but in October, when the State Fair saluted 4-H
with a special Friday celebration, Iredell County reclaimed the
coveted wreath of clover. Its club boys won the livestock judg-
ing contest and almost all of the cups in the second annual 4-H
Calf Show. It is true that Lenoir County girls were tops in poul-
try judging and that boys from Pasquotank won out in the crop
contest. In the demonstration area, a shortage of funds had
done away with competition between county teams. All was not
lost, however. Miss Cornelius and Stanly's talented Oscar Phil-
lips, the farm agent, arranged for his boys and girls to present
the live-at-home aspects of 4-H to the economy-minded public.

Such was the showing Iredell's young Max Culp had made
in the Fair's calf show and judging contest, however, that talk
of him in particular outlasted the month. Among those pleased
to hear both Culp and Lena Early so highly praised was Home
Agent Ruth Current, who on November 1, 1930 came from
Statesville to Raleigh as the new home agent for the Southwest-
ern District.

132

Although Guernsey calf work increased among dairy mem-
bers, no new 4-H projects were undertaken in North Carolina
during 1931. It was an economic matter, largely, with recreation
and health again receiving more attention than any other club
activities. In Mr. Harrill's sound judgment, they had the best
potential for putting 4-H into bud in depressed times. The actual
club harvest of the year was much more bountiful than anyone
could have expected, however.

The same 83 counties continued organized 4-H for white
youth, but the enrollment rose over 3,000 to 39,921. These boys
and girls, 62 percent of whom completed their projects, belonged
to a total of 1,020 clubs in which agents and 2,453 leaders were
also active. Providing on a statewide average more than two
leaders to each organized club, this record number of volunteers
included 982 adult and 1,471 junior leaders; all but 324 of the
latter were girls.

Fifty-two counties held 4-H Achievement Days attended by
over 18,000 people. This was a significant accomplishment
since Mr. Harrill viewed these annual rallies as valuable public
relations as well as the best means of rewarding a county's
leading 4-H'ers and clubs. Polk, enhancing its reputation for the
grand champion event of this kind, put on another spectacular
club fair in 1931.

Camps, of course, necessarily thrived in a club plan which
emphasized recreation and health. Even with the stricter at-
tendance rules in force, the number of campers rose to 5,544, up
25 percent over 1930. Boys and girls from 62 counties took part;
to Swannanoa 551 campers from 20 counties came and went
away happier, the now completed camp itself showing an oper-
ational gain of $176.58. White Lake 4-H Camp registered even
more success, clearing $225.92 after providing an organized 4-H
vacation for nearly 1,600 members from 16 counties. These sta-
tistics convinced the State Leader that permanent camps were
unquestionably the most satisfactory facilities for the future.

The 1931 National 4-H Camp was special, too. North Caro-
lina's delegation was made up of Boyce Brooks, Louise Elliott,
and Ralph Suggs, all current state officers, and Olive Jackson
from Pitt County. As in several past years, Atlantic Coast Line
Railroad sponsored two of the campers. Miss Cornelius and Mr.
Harrill attended this group in Washington where Suggs was
singled out as one of the nation's first club boys to have planted
an acre of forest trees as a 4-H project. An inlaid gavel crafted

133

Boyce Brooks hands the North Carolina gavel to Mr. Hill.

Miss Cornelius accompanied Mr. Harrill and the 1931 National Camp
delegates to Washington. Dlness made this trip her last official club
duty.

134

by Mr. Harrill of dogwood gathered on Mt. Mitchell and pine
from Roanoke Island was presented to I. W. Hill by State Presi-
dent Boyce Brooks. As in later versions of this gavel, on each
face an "H" was visible. Then saluting the entire national
gathering, the Tar Heel delegation except for Miss Cornelius
staged a one-act play entitled "The Mountain Wedding" on
Thursday evening.

Once back in North Carolina where preparations for Short
Course were to be worked out, the state officers and 4-H staff
were shocked by the sudden news that Elizabeth Cornelius was
ill with tuberculosis. She went on indefinite leave, and Mrs.
McKimmon selected Myrtie Keller, the Wayne County Home
Agent, to assist Mr. Harrill with his immediate plans and their
execution. He, in turn, took this bleak time for positive actions
designed particularly to strengthen again the part of older club
members in conducting Short Course. In letters to selected
members, including the state officers, he proposed a state con-
stitution, the introduction of 4-H uniforms for boys and girls at
Short Course, and the organization of a statewide 4-H Honor
Club.

There is no evidence that a 4-H constitution was adopted in
1931 by Short Course delegates, although Ralph Suggs drafted
one. Why more action was needed is clear from a portion of Mr.
Harrill's letter of June 30 to Boyce Brooks:

I would like to offer this one suggestion; that is, that
the officers of the various community clubs make up
the officers of the county council; that the county
council in turn elect two representatives to cast their
votes in the annual state election. It seems to me that
this system would eliminate any chance of unequal
representation. As it has been in the past, some coun-
ties have had as high as 50 or 60 delegates at the
short course, and others have had only three or four
and some only one. With each county having two
votes, it will eliminate any such unequal distribution.

With regard to a 4-H uniform, in a separate letter to the
State President on June 30, Mr. Harrill observed:

There is not a national 4-H Club uniform. A number
of states have used various types of uniforms, but as
yet we have not definitely established a national club

135

uniform other than the one used at the National 4-H
Club Camp. Personally I would like for our group to
use this uniform at our next short course; however, it
will not be made a requirement.

Not since Maude Wallace's girls had created white skirts and
middy blouses with white emblems for the 1925 Short Course
and State Fair had 4-H uniforms been mentioned here on the
state level. The National Camp uniforms which appealed to Mr.
Harrill had been in style since 1928; their widespread use at the
1931 Short Course is apparent if we compare the picture of that
year's Washington delegation with the group photograph of the
4-H'ers gathered in at Raleigh. The news accounts of Short
Course provide additional appreciation of these new club out-
fits. "Tar Heel Club News" pointed out in its second number of
the week that approximately two-thirds of the girls were dressed
in green and that about a fourth of the boys were wearing white
duck pants and white shirts with black ties. "That makes me
happy," Dean Schaub was heard to say as the delegates in uni-
form accentuated the Riddick Field gathering on Monday night.
The cool and pretty dresses in particular inspired the Raleigh
Linen Supply Company's proprietor, a 4-H father, who supplied
green uniforms without charge to all girls who had been unable
to obtain them ahead of time. Other Raleigh residents who
came out to view the opening exercises of Short Course also
approved, giving the 4-H'ers the reputation of the capital city's
best looking group of visitors. Some of these uniformed boys
and girls also had other clothes for other occasions. The week's
vespers programs, for instance, were biblical stories acted out in
costume, an effective coupling of 4-H's dual emphases on spirit-
ual growth and recreational drama. And by week's end, 36 boys
and girls in swimwear had passed their Junior Red Cross life-
saving test, five others had passed their swimming test, and 104
younger members had been certified in beginning swimming.

The Friday evening camp fire and officer installation on
Riddick Field revealed an even more meaningful use of the new
4-H uniforms, however, as a portion of the News and Observer's
August 8 club story suggests:

The installation ceremony got under way with the
forming of a colossal four leaf clover symbolizing 4-H
club work in North Carolina with 600 boys and girls
making the leaves. In the center of each leaf, a huge

136

"H" was formed by club boys dressed in regulation
white uniforms and girls comprising the green back-
ground with their green dresses. The nucleus of the
leaf embodying the final camp fire was lighted by
Dean I. O. Schaub, the first state club leader, with a
candle made of tallow from the first candle used to
ignite the initial camp fire in Washington, D. C, in
1927. This candle has been used to light the North
Carolina camp fire for the past five years.
With the lighting of the fire in the center of the clover,
each officer was administered the oath of office by
State Leader Harrill and then sent to illuminate the
"H's" of the leaves. The president's position symbol-
ized the "Head"; the vice president the "Health"; the
- secretary the "Hand"; and the historian the "Heart."
Candles of the officers were lighted first and trans-
mitted to the other 696 club members. The ceremony
closed with the entire assembly repeating a pledge of
fidelity to their new officers and the spirit of club
work in North Carolina.

Thus the 4-H candlelighting ceremony suddenly evolved into
the basic form it would retain for decades. Press notices from
across the state included the details printed in the Raleigh
paper, adding that the 4-H'ers, holding their lighted candles
high, sang "Follow the Gleam" as they marched out of the sta-
dium. Mr. Harrill's part in introducing and gradually develop-
ing this uplifting ceremony, adding both the uniforms and the
club emblem in 1931, suggests his wise use of ritual and recrea-
tion to direct the visions and steps of rural young people. He
was renewed by the annual service also.

Thus one of the most beautiful and effective scenes ever
staged in Raleigh concluded the 1931 Short Course. That week
4-H had another enduring accomplishment as well, this one
also out of the State Leader's mold. In early July he had sent a
form letter to the state's approximately two dozen alumni of
National Camp and Camp Vail. That letter read in part:

We are planning to organize a 4-H Honor Club during
the 4-H Short Course. In this organization we would
like to have all of the club members who have repre-
sented North Carolina at the National 4-H Club
Camp, the International Leader Training School at

137

Springfield, and other club members who have made
the club program in their respective counties. . . . The
object for organizing such a club is to develop leader-
ship and to utilize leadership already developed. We
expect to use this group of people to help us with the
State Short Course, to assist with the club program
throughout the State.

The sudden illness of his Assistant State Leader may have
been the immediate inspiration for Mr. Harrill's sponsorship of
an Honor Club for North Carolina. He and others, however, had
seen the merits of such an organization since 1926; in 1927
Maude Wallace had praised and recommended Pasquotank's
county plan: "As the officers of the three joint 4-H Clubs in this
county finish their year's duties they become Club leaders. This
practice is followed from year to year and the leaders form an
Executive Board of ex-officers which supports the present offic-
ers in any form of club work. As we look forward five years in
any county, could we not see how invaluable such an organiza-
tion would be?" Following the resignation of Wallace it was her
temporary successor Martha Creighton who first expressed the
need for a statewide 4-H service organization. In her report on
1929's Short Course, she observed: "In many states there is an
All-Star organization composed of older boys and girls who
have won signal honors, such as out-of-state trips. These folks
come in a few days before the Short Course. They are divided
into committees to assist with a great many phases of the pro-
gram for the next week. I would recommend experimenting with
this next year." No signs of a statewide experiment in 1930
have survived, but in Buncombe County a group of members
who had won free trips to Raleigh in previous years was organ-
ized into an Honor Club. With a motto of "In Return," the
members, according to the April 1930 EFN, pledged their lead-
ership to the county's 4-H program because of the expense paid
trips they had won to Short Course.

While Mr. Harrill's success in organizing North Carolina's
4-H Honor Club in 1931 received unusual notice in the state
press, perhaps the best record of the actual details are to be
found in "Tar Heel Club News." On Tuesday and Wednesday of
Short Course the Washington and Springfield delegates in at-
tendance drafted and approved a constitution for the proposed
organization, and in a Wednesday evening session at the cam-

138

pus YMCA, the first Honor Club officers were elected. They
were: Lena Early, president; Louise Elliott, vice president,
Boyce Brooks, secretary-treasurer; and Ralph Suggs, historian.
Charter members not among these officers were Edmund Ay-
cock, Olive Jackson, Vernon James, Julia Jones, Sam Raper,
Aaron Peele, and Kathleen Mock. Miss Mock had served as
secretary of the group during the drafting of its constitution. It
was she who explained the new club's motto of "Service" and
the specific membership requirements to the assembled Short
Course delegates on Thursday morning, August 6. To qualify,
she said, a 4-H'er must be 16 years old, have completed 3 years
of club activities with high standards, and have attended at
least one Short Course. The state's former representatives to
National Camp and Camp Vail who desired membership, she
further explained, had come to Raleigh for the occasion. At the
Friday morning assembly. Honor Club gave it first program, at
which time President Lena Early inducted the first three elected
members into the organization. They were Mabel Bowling of
Durham County, Thelma Smith of Duplin, and Jim Turner from
Iredell. Miss Early also announced that honorary membership
had been extended to Dean Schaub and Jane McKimmon, while
Elizabeth Cornelius, in absentia, and Mr. Harrill were to serve
as honorary advisory members. The simple initiation of this
varied new group was primarily the responsibility of charter
member Edmund Aycock.

Edmund Aycock, Vernon James, Boyce Brooks, and Sam Raper,
charter members of Honor Club, at the 1981 dedication of the Harrill
cases in the D. H. Hill Library Archives at NCSU.

139

CONSTITUTION OF THE NORTH CAROLINA

4-H HONOR CLUB
August 4, 1931

Article I: Name

This organization shall be known as the North Carolina 4-H
Honor Club.

Article II: Object

This organization shall have as its object the encourage-
ment and development of leadership among 4-H Club boys and
girls.

Membership in this organization shall be a reward for out-
standing service rendered through the development of the 4-H's —
Head, Heart, Hand, and Health.

Article III: Motto

The motto of this organization shall be "Service."

Article IV: Membership

(a) Before becoming a member of this organization a club
member shall have been actively engaged in club work for at
least three years and shall be at least sixteen years of age. He
shall also have attended at least one State Short Course.

(b) Any person who is awarded a trip to the National 4-H
Club Encampment in Washington or to the Leadership Train-
ing School in Springfield, Massachusetts is eligible for member-
ship in this organization, provided he attend one meeting of the
4-H Honor Club held at North Carolina State College on Friday
night of State Short Course Week.

(c) Recommendations for membership in this organization
shall come primarily from records concerning candidates for
out-of-state trips. These records may be obtained from the State
Club Leaders.

(d) Honorary members of this organization shall be: Mrs.
Jane S. McKimmon, State Home Demonstration Agent and Mr.
I. O. Schaub, Dean of School of Agriculture.

Article V: Officers

(a) The officers of the organization shall be: President, Vice
President, Secretary-Treasurer, and Historian.

(b) The officers shall be elected annually by ballot and shall
serve not more than one year in the same position.

140

(c) Honorary advisors of this organization shall be the State
Leaders in club work.

Article VI: Amendments

This constitution may be amended by three-fourths vote of
the members present.

On August 25, 1931, Mr. Harrill made the following obser-
vations about this document in a letter to Boyce Brooks, thus
setting in motion the on-going process of shaping the 4-H Honor
Club in its present form:

This will acknowledge receipt of your letter of August
24th enclosing a copy of the constitution of the North
Carolina 4-H Honor Club. I have gone over this rather
carefully and would like to offer a suggested change.
However, this cannot be done without the three-
fourths vote of the members present next year. I be-
lieve that Section 4(b) should be amended to read in
such a way that no definite night is given for the
meeting which the applicant for membership must
attend. I make this suggestion because it might be
necessary to change the time of meeting. In fact, Sec-
tion No. 4(b) seems to be out of place. The first criti-
cism coming to me was that the 4-H Honor Club may
have formed an opinion that this was what we
wanted since we made the selection largely from this
group. But, as a matter of fact the out-of-state trip
winners were used because of the fact that they had
already been selected by the extension staff and
selected as the outstanding club members in the state.

In little gestures as well as in big developments such as
Honor Club, the 1931 Short Course delegates proved that hard
times were plentiful in good will. On Tuesday afternoon at
assembly, for instance, they presented Dean Schaub a club
gavel like the one I. W. Hill had received during National Camp
in June. On Thursday afternoon Miss Cornelius was the object
of the 600 4-H'ers' gratitude; each boy and girl wrote her an
individual get-well message on 4-leaf clover notepaper! These
outstanding achievements, large and small, were not the only
worthy news of the week, however. There had been rain in
abundance. Several outside programs had been forced inside,
and even there the pounding downpour on Pullen Hall's old roof

141

drowned out soft-spoken speakers like Mrs. McKimmon. As
often as the schedule was interrupted, Mr. Harrill led songs,
pitching them as loud and drawing them out as long as the
storm required. His witty adaptiveness obviously pleased the
boys and girls. By Wednesday, according to their paper, the
State Leader's initials surely stood for "Lotta Rain" instead of
Leary Rhinehart. Another account asked: "Have you ever heard
Leary R. (Rudy Vallee) Harrill sing? Well, if you haven't, you're
going to this week. Mr. W.P.T.F. with all his amplifying horns,
arrives at the college tonight and our own Mr. Harrill is going
to 'croon' through the microphone." The next day's Raleigh
Times completed this curious story:

L. R. Harrill, bachelor club leader at State College,
now knows the true meaning of the song, "Singing in
the Rain." The better to be on hand at all hours dur-
ing the 4-H short course . . . Mr. Harrill moved from
his room in Cameron Park to one of the college dormi-
tories. Being a bachelor and rushed with short course
details, he forgot to lower the window . . . when he
went to the evening meeting in Pullen Hall. The rain
came . . . and Mr. Harrill decided to lead the club
members in an hour of singing. As he sang, the rain
played havoc with his bed linen, his clothing, and
other paraphernalia of an eligible bachelor. His suit-
case lying open on a table near the window was filled
with water and since he had only the two sheets on
the bed, he spent the remainder of the night on an
uncovered mattress in another room. "The worst part
about it," said Harrill "was that I thought about that
window when we were about half through with the
singing."

In November 1931 Mr. Harrill ended his popular bachelor-
hood, marrying Laura Belle Weatherspoon of Raleigh. Between
the end of Short Course and their marriage, much besides ro-
mance had gladdened the popular State Leader. In October, for
example, the year-old, tree-planting campaign among club mem-
bers added to its ranks 400 boys and girls who agreed to plant
25 black walnut seedlings apiece. At the State Fair, despite the
cancellation of 4-H demonstration contests because of limited
space and funds, members from 21 counties exhibited or com-
peted in other contests. Lenoir County judging teams won the

142

crop, livestock, and poultry prizes. But Iredell's Max Gulp, the
4-H hero of the 1930 State Fair, in 1931 won two coveted medals
and a two-year scholarship to State College. The donor of this
new award for Jersey calf excellence was Raleigh's Occidental
Life Insurance Company. Then Mr. Harrill selected Culp and
new State President Selma Harris to join him and Dean Schaub
in Raleigh on November 7 when National 4-H Achievement
Day was celebrated in North Carolina with a live club program
on WPTF.

In conjunction with this event and in recognition of the role
of volunteer leaders in the state's successful youth program, Mr.
Harrill issued a new 4-H bulletin entitled "4-H Club Leaders
Handbook." It was his most ambitious and comprehensive pub-
lication to date, inspired and well illustrated. Its challenge was
also clear: "The community that would build for the future, that
would cultivate its greatest asset, that would render itself the
greatest possible service, must turn its attention to its youth. In
this day of efficient organization in all fields, the talk of train-
ing the young involves the formation of organizations of boys
and girls into clubs which will at one time interest the members
and give them that supervision and inspiration which will tend
to make them good citizens."

Furthermore, Mr. Harrill was pleased to find the 4-H activi-
ties among North Carolina's Negro youth were once more tak-
ing promising shape. From Greensboro J. W. Mitchell and Mrs.
Lowe reported an enrollment of 4,918. This rebirth of a signifi-
cant program under their more centralized leadership seemed of
special significance in November 1931, which was the month of
the retirement of George W. Herring, Sampson's longtime local
agent who had formed the state's first clubs for rural Negro
youth in 1914.

There was some unpleasant news as well for the bride-
groom. Miss Cornelius remained gravely ill. The state had sent
no delegates to Camp Vail, and the economic news was no-
where bright for the new year. Yet in December, word came that
Max Culp had won another scholarship, this one worth $500,
given by International Harvester of Chicago in celebration of
the centennial of McCormick's reaper.

The vigorous club springtime of 1931 supported 4-H spirits
throughout 1932. Club enrollment increased almost 10 percent,
while the established list of 4-H projects for boys and girls pro-
duced a market value of $261,378.12. Club programs were vi-

143

The 1932 Short Course cheerleaders.

brant but largely unchanged. What important additions there
were, with one exception, a brief review of the 1932 Short
Course will show. The statewide singing contest won finally by
Iredell County was a new feature; a similar drama contest
which 4-H'ers from Pasquotank walked off with was another.
Also for the first time, there were official club cheerleaders on
hand, the East's Shelby Cooper from Pasquotank and Gaston's
Grier Beattie from the West.

A very special joint cheer went up for Alamance County's
young Gladys Vestal. Just 15, she won the first State 4-H Dress
Revue that week. This Wednesday event, with a public viewing
and photographs at the Friday morning assembly, was directed
by Clothing Specialist Miss Willie Hunter. Since 1929 the state's
women and girls had put on over 100 local shows of cotton
fashions made at home. The rural public had responded with
interest, but this 4-H Dress Revue was somewhat grander. Miss
Vestal's winning outfit was a brown wool sport dress with a
beige scarf of silk, accented with orange. Her felt hat and tai-

144

lored purse were smartly coordinated; completing her ensemble
was a suit of silk applique underwear which she had sewn by
hand.

In another new event, Faustina Shearon of Wake County
out baked 25 club girls in a cake contest and won a $100 scho-
larship from the Royal Baking Powder Company. Other dele-
gates were active, too. In addition to inducting eight new
members. Honor Club assisted with "Tar Heel Club News" as
well as the annual Health Pageant in which Dean Schaub
played the part of George Washington to Mrs. McKimmon's
Martha. The year-old service club also presented an assembly
program on maintaining 4-H morale. This timely effort was
reinforced in the week's theme of "Teamwork," which Ruth
Current, still serving in Miss Cornelius' absence, interpreted for
the 434 uniformed boys and girls from 57 counties. Each dele-
gate, incidentally, had been charged $4.25 for room and board.

4-H activities merely held their own at the 1932 State Fair;
the most important result was the selection of Esley Hope
Forbes, a National Camp delegate from Gaston County and a
new Honor Club member, as winner of the second scholarship
donated in calf work by Occidental Life.

It was two club girls who received the most unusual state-
wide 4-H recognition in 1932, however. Thelma Smith of Pink

Lena Early and Max Gulp hold their county's banner.

145

Hill, judged the state's top fe-
male member, and stylist
Gladys Vestal were given free
trips to National 4-H Congress
in Chicago. Montgomery Ward
sponsored Miss Smith in home
economics; the Chicago Mail
Order Company provided $125
for the expenses of the clothing
champion. Returning home 10
days later with money to spare,
she would always remember the
Sherman Hotel, the Congress's
grand banquets sponsored by
major companies, the entertain-
ing shows including a per-
formance by Maurice Cheva-
lier, and the trip to the livestock
yards." The winners in the var-
ious phases of 4-H work," she
later wrote, "were crowned in
the theatre of the stockyards,
where they rode in wagons
pulled by the famous Budweiser
Clydesdales. The winners re-
ceived scholarships for college.
I feel that if I had been a bit
older and more experienced, I
could have done better in the
national competition."

Ruth Current made this his-
toric trip by train with these
two state winners, thus renew-
ing in 1932 the annual 4-H
awards journey to the wonderful Windy City, the recognition to
which Maude Wallace had introduced the best Tar Heel club
girls a decade earlier.

1933 was the sudden cold snap in the green years of 4-H in
North Carolina. Not since 1925 had club life for boys and girls
been as blighted. Early in January death claimed courageous
Elizabeth Cornelius. That summer there was no Short Course
and thus no Health Pageant. Club camping except at Swanna-

Miss Vestal and the outfit that
won the 1932 4-H Dress Revue,
the first.

146

Current

noa, where most of the campers
were girls, was rare. At the
State Fair, 4-H was more ap-
parent as Iredell, Pasquotank,
Alamance, and Durham boys domi-
nated the usual calf show and
contests. No scholarship was
awarded, however. To the rural
public's tense, year-long strug-
gle for an actual living, it is
true, had been added the initial
recovery progams of the New
Deal. But these programs them-
selves caused certain dis-
locations. The first Agricultural
Adjustment Act, for example, mo-
nopolized the time for Extension
personnel on all levels. Negotiat-
ing and monitoring cotton and tobacco reduction contracts with
adult farmers necessarily came first. We find the 4-H reduction
that accordingly took place in Mr. Harrill's annual narrative:
"If there is any one outstanding result or demonstration in this
year's report it is that a few counties are weathering the storm
of adjustments and are coming through with a creditable pro-
gram of 4-H club work, and it so happens that this is true in the
counties with the community plan of organization. Invariably
the best results have been accomplished in the better organized
counties." Typically, the State Leader saw an even better lesson
in the adverse circumstances. Since 4-H was aimed at the club
members themselves, it would survive because "they will find
some way to make the program fit the situation." He knew that
the Depression would already have obliterated 4-H if projects
alone had been the chief focus of the club.

Obviously he and Miss Current were adaptive, too. They
found a way to fund the state's full delegation to National
Camp. EFN helped them keep 4-H before the state's rural public
in articles about the renewed canning-at-home campaign. Dur-
ham farmer and capitalist George Watts Hill provided free
hardware for this work in his own area and continued his
improvement of 4-H Guernsey stock statewide from his prized
herd at Quail Roost Farm. The state's old corn contest was

147

sponsored as usual by Chilean Nitrate, and Mr. Harrill wel-
comed additional, out-of-state sponsors of these young farmers.
In a nationwide contest, the Nelson Knitting Company of Illi-
nois offered three corn project scholarships. In a similar compe-
tition among 4-H'ers enrolled in meat animal projects coast-to-
coast, Thomas E. Wilson, Chairman of the National 4-H Com-
mittee in Chicago, donated three additional scholarships.

There is no indication that any of this money actually came
to a North Carolina boy or girl, but this new opportunity was
established during this hard year. There were other bright
spots, too. In April 1933 Aaron Peele of Wayne County, having
matured out of active 4-H, made National 4-H Club News
through his success in carrying on club activities in his Na-
hunta community after the county's Extension program had
been dissolved. Perhaps no other Honor Club member in North
Carolina had performed a better service to 4-H. Young Peele's
leadership became a state and national example.

November 4, National 4-H Achievement Day, Mr. Harrill
and several members spoke over WPTF from Raleigh, and on
Asheville's WWNC Miss Current was assisted by 4-H'ers and
agents in a similar program. Later that month Christine Dail of
Duplin County won the second annual 4-H Dress Revue. Her
brown silk afternoon dress won over six other outfits made by
club girls who had come to Raleigh for the belated contest. Miss
Dail spent the first 10 days of December in Chicago at National
Congress; accompanying her on the free trip were Dorothy
Lloyd of Durham County, the year's most outstanding 4-H girl,
and Miss Current. During Congress the North Carolina girls
won third place in the national clothing judging contest. At
home Mr. Harrill closed the worst year of his tenure as State
4-H Leader in the most satisfactory fashion. He and Mrs. Har-
rill shared Christmas with their first child, Julia Anne, who
had been born September 16.

Death at an early age, this proud father knew, was not the
fate of 4-H in North Carolina. In 1934 the 521 active clubs in a
record 91 counties celebrated the Silver Anniversary of Dean
Schaub's organization of the state's first corn club at Ahoskie.
Camping climbed back to life as 35 county groups made up of
1,230 members took part. There were 36 4-H Achievement Days
statewide and 229 Leadership Training Schools. Mr. Harrill
coordinated the year's work and play for the low enrollment of
22,309 white members without the aid of a fulltime assistant.

148

for Miss Current, after more than 2 years of relief duty as club
specialist for girls, was required to devote most of her time to
the Southwestern District. We do not find evidence that this
assignment diminished the stature of North Carolina's 4-H
girls, however.

The success in 1934 of familiar Mildred Ives is one testi-
mony. In January Mr. Harrill announced in EFN that two na-
tional scholarships of $1,000 would be awarded by the Payne
Fund of New York to a former club boy and girl for 9 months
residence and study in Washington at USDA. In April the
paper printed the picture of Miss Ives as this state's nominee,
supporting the Pasquotank leader's candidacy with endorse-
ments from Dean Schaub, Mrs. McKimmon, Mr. Harrill, and
President Wright of East Carolina College. Having served as an
emergency home agent in Bertie County during the summer of
1933, Miss Ives was then teaching home economics at Colraine
High School. On June 14, 1934 came the announcement that
this former state officer and Camp Vail delegate had won one of
these coveted new fellowships.

For the first time since 1924, North Carolina also sent four
club girls on free trips to National Club Congress. Beaufort's
Jean Kerr was the state winner in home economics, the canning
champion was Vera Geer of Union Mills in Rutherford County,
state Queen of Health Elizabeth Johnson of Johnston County
entered the national health contest, and Mary Rose Pickler,
winner of the 1934 Dress Revue, competed in the national cloth-
ing contest. Outfits by two other club stylists were entered in
the national exhibit of 4-H fashions. Making the Chicago trip
with these representatives, Willie Hunter, the Extension cloth-
ing specialist, coached a team composed of Kerr and Geer to a
third place finish in judging canned products!

Miss Johnson and Miss Pickler had won their state titles
during Short Course, revived in late July and attended by 380
boys and girls. Another highlight of this course was the partici-
pation of USDA's grand dame Gertrude Warren, who led unique
morning conferences on club organization and leadership. Anni-
versary praises were given by Consolidated UNC President
Frank Porter Graham. He extolled 4-H's inspiring ideas of
building, conserving, and learning. Miss Current, who became
an honorary member of Honor Club, again assisted Mr. Harrill
during this week, as she had in June for the duration of Na-
tional Camp. There was a unique feature too. 1934 Short Course

149

was the first one ever to extend through a weekend. On Sunday
after a union worship period on campus, the boys and girls were
taken downtown by bus to the churches of their choice. That
afternoon they picnicked in PuUen Park, going later in the
evening onto Riddick Field for the traditional installation of
officers during the candlelighting ceremony. The master candle
used by the State Leader had come to him from Farm Youth
Day participants at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chi-
cago the preceding year.

In 1934 Negro boys and girls from 17 counties also attended
a renewal of their annual Short Course at A&T College. Classes
were offered in canning, team demonstration techniques, poul-
try, and social courtesies. District Agents Mitchell and Lowe
also led the members in electing their first state officers: Presi-
dent Mae Sue Thompson of Alamance was to serve with two
Durham County youth. Vice President Otis Day and Secretary
Leslie Mack. The entire Negro delegation was featured in Sep-
tember's EFN, the course having run late in August. That
summer as well saw camping restored to some of these boys and
girls as 19 black 4-H'ers from 4 counties spent a week at Cho-
wan Beach in Hertford County.

The State Fair of 1934 was more active for white 4-H'ers
and more rewarding financially than in recent years. To the
$1,600 in premiums was added the new Cameron Morrison
Scholarship worth full tuition in dairy husbandry at State Col-
lege. Iredell's Price Brawley won this award for his top marks
as a Jersey calf breeder, judge, and showman. Alamance
County boys won ail of the judging contests, while young Braw-
ley and his neighbors took the show ring honors. In the exhib-
its, 4-H hopes were extinguished when a fire destroyed the East
Hall just hours before the gates were opened. The 4-H Corn
Show was spared; Quinten Nichols of Wilkes won sweepstakes
among 156 entries.

This Silver Anniversary of club life brought spring back to
4-H, despite the reduction in membership for the second straight
year. In addition to the indicated signs of green vitality, a
record number of radio broadcasts popularized 4-H, and the
Barrett Company joined Chilean Nitrate in corn project patron-
age, including a scholarship. While no new state 4-H projects
were introduced, a special recognition came to Gaston County's
total program. Selected this state's entry in the first national,
best-all-round county competition, sanctioned by the National

150

Committee and sponsored by Sears, Roebuck, and Company,
Gaston's scrapbook did not win the first prize, a $10,000 com-
munity building; but the preparation of the record was a unify-
ing experience.

This year of celebration statewide ended on a sad note for
4-H's old timers, however. After Thanksgiving came the news of
the accidental death of Reid Tomlin, the mainstay among Ire-
dell calf project members and the State Fair's 1933 grand
champion club showman. Mr. Harrill personally memorialized
this outstanding 4-H'er in the 1934 annual report.

Only 87 counties, four fewer than in 1934, reported having
4-H programs in 1935. Yet there was an expanded enrollment of
25,478 members in a total of 911 clubs. Only 58 percent of these
members completed their records. More severe setbacks were
registered, however. An epidemic of infantile paralysis forced
the cancellation of plans in Greensboro and Raleigh for Short
Course. The camp schedule was almost completely abandoned.
At least this last turn of events had some utility. The vacancy
of White Lake and Swannanoa in particular made it possible
for the Works Progress Administration to repair and improve
these popular 4-H facilities.

Prior to the health scare, Ruth Current had returned the old
club tour to prominence, supervising 125 4-H girls from her dis-
trict on a bus trip to Washington where Eleanor Roosevelt per-
sonally greeted them. The polio problem did not cripple either
National Camp or National Congress. Joseline Sutton, the 1935
Dress Revue winner from Sampson County, went to Chicago
after the state contest held at State College in late October for
21 stylists. Miss Current and three other state winners accom-
panied her.

Given the health risks of large in-state assemblies, radio
publicity was increased; but by autumn the more customary
activity on the county level had largely regained its momentum.
The revitalization of county 4-H councils, a schedule of 54
Achievement Days, and the founding of Service Clubs made up
of former 4-H'ers in a number of counties were signs of return-
ing vitality. In the previous winter and early spring, a token of
this resumed level of activity had been the approximately 300
leadership sessions in which serviceable John Bradford had
again assisted Mr. Harrill in recreation and related instruction.

Individual honors came to North Carolina's Negro 4-H'ers
in May 1935 when Lyda Mae Barbee of Wake County went to

151

Washington to speak about recreational advantages of 4-H on
the 59 stations making up the National Broadcasting Com-
pany. This wide recognition for Miss Barbee anticipated an
increase in the scope of the state's Extension services to
Negroes, including youth. On July 1, seven new local Negro
agents were added to the county farm personnel, bringing the
state total to 27. Negro home agents increased from 8 to 11.
White personnel was increasing, also, and some new agents
were former 4-H'ers. In Lenoir, for instance. May Swan was at
work; her associate in Jones was Mary Emma Powell. Mildred
Ives was Northampton's new home agent, succeeding Miss
Daisy Caldwell who had joined the Resettlement Administra-
tion which former State Club Agent Homer Mask had returned
to North Carolina to head. It would be another year before State
College junior Max Culp joined the county staff in Mecklen-
burg, but in May 1935 he was back in the news as the state's
first older 4-H'er to win a trip to Danforth Camp at Miniwanca
in Michigan. That even more club talent would be entering the
county labor force was indicated by the announcement that the
McKimmon Loan Fund for girls had already been useful to 16
young women, five of whom were now working and paying off
the loan. The Fund itself had grown to $5,956 by the fall of
1935.

The State Fair was lively but generally routine for 4-H boys.
The corn, calf, and judging events were the largest in memory,
with both Jersey and Guernsey stock in good supply and about
80 members from a dozen counties to do the rating. Members
from Haywood and Buncombe in baby beef work rejoined the
winning forces that week, but the second Morrison Scholarship
went to Henry Vanstory of Iredell. Haywood's John Reno did
win a first-year tuition grant for baby beef animal production.
His donor was the National Cottonseed Products Association. It
was later announced that John was the 1935 State Corn Cham-
pion, an honor that added another year's college tuition to his
account. The girls from Cleveland reestablished their winning
ways at the State Fair in the renewal of the 4-H team demon-
stration contests with prizes amounting to $225. Ruth Current
supervised this long contest in which 12 teams sought the
sweepstakes prize with subjects ranging from food and nutri-
tion to clothing and room improvement. The winner's subject
was "New Furniture From Old."

There is no indication that a county competed for the

152

national 4-H county award in 1935. Neither is there any record
of a boy from North Carolina entering the new national 4-H
farm records competition sponsored for the National Committee
by International Harvester. It is clear, however, that Mr. Harrill
was studious of improved club manuals, distributing new ones
in corn, Irish potatoes, and gardening during the year.

The subsequent appearance of new or revised 4-H publica-
tions on tobacco, forestry, poultry, swine, livestock, judging,
junior homemaking, food preparation, fashion color harmonies,
homemade underwear, and school garments is one indication
that 1936 was an unusually productive club year. Mr. Harrill
co-authored the swine bulletin, but he was solely responsible for
another item — one typical of his most sustaining interest —
entitled "Programs and Materials for Leaders in Home, Com-
munity, and Club Recreation," This illustrated handbook was a
repository of his successful missionary efforts in behalf of or-
ganized play during his first decade as State 4-H Leader. It
would become a guide for all 4-H leaders of singing, games,
dramatics, and arts and crafts in the years ahead. The 48 pages
stressed the moral, mental, and physical aspects of recreation
in Mr. Harrill's own terms. He let it be known, too, that North
Carolina's active 4-H program owed its high spirits to this once
neglected phase of rural life.

What else happened to 4-H in 1936? The year, in fact,
turned green all over. Even before the Supreme Court's January
declaration that the first, time consuming — if vital — AAA was
unconstitutional, county personnel had committed themselves
to a greater emphasis of 4-H. Emergency funds had made it
possible to hire assistant agents in many counties, and for the
first time in three decades, club members were being viewed as
Dr. Knapp had initially seen them. Their lives were to be en-
lightened and brightened, and in this process the boys and girls
were to be the media persuading rural parents to take up better
methods of farming and homemaking and fun. The ambitious
list of new club literature fit into this revived Extension plan.

Newspaper and radio 4-H publicity was also more active
than ever before. Over 500 Leader Training Schools were held
statewide; a special meeting for Negro club leaders was held at
Raleigh's Shaw University, with John Bradford in charge. Na-
tional Camp and especially the county camping program were
prosperous. Thanks to WPA, Swannanoa in particular was
much improved; the grounds had been landscaped, plumbing

153

installed, the buildings repaired, a new waterline to the pool put
in, and the old roadway fixed. Never before, however, had more
than 60 counties requested access to this and other camps. Only
3,627 white youth could be housed; the rest were turned away.
At Chowan Beach, July 15-16, nearly 1,000 Negro boys and
girls from Pasquotank, Northampton, Bertie, Hertford, and
Gates counties camped under supervision in more primitive
style. A better program of Achievement Days for both races
meant that countywide as well as local meetings were held
accordingly to the judgment of agents; a total of 255 programs
were reported under this adaptable plan.

Nonetheless there were some wonderful, unexpected develop-
ments, throughout the year. In April Mr. Harrill suddenly an-
nounced a new club idea, a major statewide project in Wildlife
and Conservation. The work of the 40 top members in the state,
he said, would be rewarded by a week's free stay at a special
late-summer camp. In one sense this new project extended the
mandated soil improvement program, which had replaced AAA,
to this state's rural boys and girls. That pleased Dean Schaub.
In another sense, the new 4-H project was the contagious idea of
Mr. George McCullough, Wildlife Technician of the Federal
Cartridge Company. He wanted to see rural youth engaged in
conservation every day. Since 1934 his Minnesota outfit had
introduced this work in over 30 states. He provided the $400 to
be used for the camp scholarships here. McCullough also helped
draw up the initial project outline for North Carolina. There
were four basic parts. Each participant in Wildlife and Conserva-
tion was to make a series of maps of the family farm, conduct
regular wildlife censuses there, identify all farmland trees by
their names and chief natural uses, and undertake a special
activity such as transplanting wild flowers in lawn plots or
building a fish pond.

4-H'ers from 24 counties readily enrolled, and from among
those with complete records by late August, 60 boys and girls —
20 more than originally planned — attended the first State 4-H
Wildlife Camp at Camp Graystone between Greensboro and
High Point, August 31 through September 4. "In my 10 years of
experiences of working with young people," Mr. Harrill wrote,
'T have never worked with a group in camp or otherwise who
was more interested." The impressive faculty under the State
Leader's direction included representatives of the Audubon So-
ciety, the Soil Conservation Service, the State Department of

154

Agriculture, the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, and the Biological
Survey. Mr. McCullough attended along with State College
Forestry Specialist R. W. Graeber and District Agent O. F.
McCrary. Zoology and Entomology Professor Z. P. Metcalf was
there, too. A camper from Stanly County, young Roy Coggin,
was more than satisfied by their total course: "In my few days
at camp I have learned more about nature than one year's
teaching would have given me at school."

Since the middle of 1935 reports of progress in rural electrifica-
tion had been circulated across the state by David S. Weaver,
that project's chief engineer. By May 1936 4-H club members
were also taking up projects of their own, both to boost rural
energy and public awareness of it. Mr. Harrill announced that
gold medals awaited county electric winners, with a $50 mer-
chandise certificate reserved for the state winner. This person
would compete with winners from other states in this region for
one of two free trips to National Club Congress where national
winners of three college scholarships would be announced. It
turned out that Mr. Weaver's 4-H counterpart was Jean Lowder,
a sparkling Stanly County girl who won regional as well as
state honors and went to Chicago.

There were four other Tar Heel club girls on this trip to the
1936 National 4-H Congress, in addition to Ruth Current who
went back as their chaperone after having judged national
records there in early November. Durham County's Margaret
Greene had won state honors in food conservation. Eunice
Griggs of Anson County was the food preparation champion,
and Elizabeth Randle of Cleveland had won the state home
economics prize. North Carolina's 1936 entry in the National
4-H Style Revue was Ellen McMillan of Cumberland. She had
won her title in a special show held at State College on October
9 when she competed with 24 fashionable girls from other
counties.

On Friday, July 24, the preliminary to this autumn contest
had been one of many Short Course events. Attended by 307
boys and 340 girls from a record 76 different counties, the 1936
course ran on the following schedule:

WEDNESDAY, JULY 22

2:30 — Registration begins — Y.M.C.A

6:00- 7:00 — Supper — College cafeteria

8:00 — Informal program — Riddick Field

155

9:00 — Play — By Gaston County Group

THURSDAY, JULY 23

6:30 - Wake Up! Wake Up! The Day

Begun!
6:50 — Flag raising exercise — JOHN

ARTZ, County Agent, Stanly, and

MISS IRENE BROWN, Assistant

Home Agent, Johnston County, in

charge
7:00-8:00 — Breakfast — College cafeteria.
8:30-8:45 — Club members assembly and

conference period — L. R.

HARRILL in charge.

— Community Singing — L. R. HAR-
RILL in charge

— Address of Welcome — J. W.
HARRELSON, College Dean of
Administration

DEAN I. O. SCHAUB

— Introduction of County Groups
9:00-10:00 — Team demonstrations — MISS

RUTH CURRENT in charge

— Table Service — Jones County
Team.

— Refinishing Furniture — Cleveland
County Team.

— Correct Shoes for Health —
Durham County Team.

10:30-12:00 — Class Introduction

AFTERNOON PROGRAM

12:30-1:30 — Dinner — College cafeteria
2:00 — Radio Program, WPTF — GENE

KNIGHT in charge.
2:30-5:00 — Sight-seeing tour of campus and

recreation — L. B. ALTMAN in

charge.
6:00-7:00 — Supper — College cafeteria.
7:45-8:15 — Vesper program — MR. B. TROY

FERGUSON in charge.
8:15-8:45 - Play, "The Heritage" — Rowan

County.

156

— Special Folk Dance — By selected
county groups.

8:45-9:15 — Recreation — MR. HARRILL and

MISS CURRENT in charge.
10:00 - "THE DAY IS DONE - GONE

THE SUN."

SATURDAY, JULY 25

6:30 Wake Up! A New Day is Here!

6:50 — Flag raising exercise — JOHN

ARTZ and MISS IRENE BROWN

in charge.
7:00-8:00 — Breakfast — College cafeteria.

ACHIEVEMENT PROGRAM

8:30-9:30 — Finals in Song Contest.

— Report of Delegates to National
Club Camp

HAROLD GARRISON
MARJORIE VEASEY
HELEN WHITLOCK
MARVIN FOYLES
9:30-10:30 — Address — DR. FRANK P.
GRAHAM, President.

— Awarding of Achievements — J. W.
HARRELSON

10:40-11:00 — Honor Club Program — MAX

CULP in charge.
11:00-12:00 — Election of Officers

AFTERNOON PROGRAM

Dinner — College cafeteria.

Radio Program, WPTF — GENE KNIGHT in charge.

Recreation Program — J. T. COOPER and M. L. BARNES in

charge.

Finals in ball games.

Supper — College cafeteria.

EVENING PROGRAM

Vesper Program — B. TROY FERGUSON in charge.

Special "Dorothy Emerson Story."

Health Pageant - MISS MAY SWAN in charge.

157

SUNDAY, JULY 26

HOLY, HOLY, HOLY

7:00 Open your window and show your

head.
7:30 — Flag raising exercise — JOHN

ARTZ and MISS BROWN in

charge
7:30-8:30 — Breakfast — College cafeteria.
9:30-10:30 — Sunday School — Conducted by

Rev. P. D. MILLER, Pastor First

Presbyterian Church, Raleigh,

N.C.
11:00-12:30 — Church Service — Entire group will

attend downtown churches

AFTERNOON PROGRAM

1:00-2:00 — Dinner — College cafeteria

3:30-6:00 — Organ Recital

6:30 — Picnic Supper — Pullen Park.

EVENING PROGRAM

8:00-8:30 — Special Vesper Program.

8:45-9:45 — Candle Lighting Ceremony — L. R.

HARRILL in charge.
10:00 — GOOD NIGHT.

Class Schedule (Girls Only)

Section

Subject

Instructor

Place

Time

A

Foods

Miss Mary E. Thomas

Y.M.C.A.
Auditorium

10:30-12:00

B

Clothing

Miss Willie N. Hunter

209 Peele Hall

10:30-12:00

C

Room
Improvement

Miss Pauline Gordon

6PeeleHall

10:30-12:00

D

Adventuring
w/Books

Miss Marjorie Beale

3 Peele Hall

10:30-12:00

E

Outdoor Home
Beautification

Miss Pauline Smith

108 Pullen Hall

10:30-12:00

F

Arts and Crafts

Miss Anamerle Arant

201 Peele Hall

10:30-12:00

G

Jelly and Jams

Mrs. Cornelia C.

10:30-12:00

lorris

158

Class Schedule (Girls Only) (continued)

Self

Improvement Miss Mildred Ives 10:30-12:00

Posture and Mrs. Katherine M. 10:30-12:00

Health ONeil

Class Schedule

Subject Instruction Instructor Place Time

Crops Cultural methods, Prof. Darst and Patterson 10:30-12:00

Selection and Agronomy Staff

Judging

Livestock Feeding, Fittmg, Ruffner, Haig Polk Hall 10:30-12:00

Showing & and Staff

Judging

Poultry Shov\/ing, Judging, C. F. Parrish Ricks Hall 10:30-12:00

Production and Staff

Conservation Forestry, Insect R. W. Graeber Ricks Hall 10:30-12:00

Life, Economic Dr. Z. P. Metcalf

Importance of Geo. Lay
Game and Wildlife

Parliamentary How to Conduct a Mrs. Estelle T. Peele Hall 10:30-12:00
Practices Meeting Smith

Recreation Music Mr. Harrill Gymnasium 10:30-12:00

Appreciation,
Program Planning,
Recreation
Leadership

Personal Grooming, Staff Pullen Hall 10:30-12:00

Improvement Clothing, Good

Manners Mrs. McKimmon

159

Class Schedule (continued)

Organization Training Leaders Mrs. Dorothy Peele Hall 10:30-12:00

how to organize Emerson of the

and conduct a Maryland

constructive Extension

program of club Service
work

Life Saving Swimming, Life Rufus Page Gymnasium 10:30-12:00

Saving

Bees Approved Mr. Sams Zoology Lab 10:30-12:00

Practices in
Agriculture

While this program both represents what Short Course for
white boys and girls had become by 1936 and identifies the
instructional staff, it also has a unique feature — the team dem-
onstration competition on Thursday and Friday mornings at
assembly. The Wake County team of Inez Bennett and Thomas
Adams finally won over four other teams by stressing and
exhibiting good posture. The 4-H audience's gain from these
demonstrations would be the loss of State Fair goers. But this
change in the Fair schedule had been necessary in 1936 to make
room for the expansion of special 4-H Educational Exhibits on
the grounds.

Occupying 1,300 square feet of floor space, two kinds of fair
booths served 4-H's newer needs. In the noncompetitive class,
subjects such as food conservation, clothing, interior decora-
tion, and window dressing were demonstrated. The competitive
booths, of which there were four, were county specialties. Cleve-
land County, under the skilled eyes of Frances MacGregor, won
first prize with room improvement. Wake was second with its
model 4-H organization, and Wilson and Stanly carried out
home beautification and recreation themes, respectively.

This Fair's 4-H corn show, baby beef exhibit, calf show for
Jerseys and Guernseys, and the usual judging contests —
Cleveland won sweepstakes in livestock and Johnston won in
both poultry and seeds — were also large and well financed, the
premiums amounting to $2,333.50. The annual banquet for the

160

judging contestants was spon-
sored by the Educational
Bureau of the Barrett Com-
pany. This business also be-
came in 1936 the sole sponsor of
the state's corn project. Prizes
were a gold watch to each
county winner, a year's scholar-
ship to State College to each
district winner, and a four-year
scholarship to the state winner,
Howard Martin of Clay.
Chilean Nitrate, under Mr. Har-
rill's urging, had thrown its
generous support in a new 4-H
direction — a full State College
scholarship for the best record
in agriculture over a three-year Jones

period. Lenoir's Marvin Foyles won. County champions in this
contest won free trips to the 1937 Short Course.

The record of particularly good relations between the State
4-H Office and Chilean Nitrate had gradually enabled Mr. Har-
rill to establish an exemplary state awards program with built-
in educational values. His model was the National Club Con-
gress program. He tried to convince all state donors, therefore,
to offer their prizes to 4-H'ers as scholarships, either as college
funds or as Short Course or camp fees. The new Wildlife and
Conservation Project's donor obliged by supplying annual
camp costs. Other older cooperating agencies included Senator
and Mrs. Cameron Morrison whose full scholarship to State
College was claimed by Iredell's Jersey standout Ray Morrison
in 1936. National Cottonseed Products Association paid a year's
tuition at State for both baby beef winner Heath Bailey of
Johnston and Davidson's Carney Davis, the dairy winner who
worked with Guernseys. As in the past, Atlantic Coast Railroad
donated two free passes to the Tar Heel National Camp delega-
tion. In contrast. Ball Brothers Company paid $12 cash to
Rachel Watkins of Vance, winner of the annual state canning
contest. Arrowwood Farms of Charlotte continued its old prac-
tice of supplying a quality registered Jersey to the club boy or
girl with the best Arrowwood record; and show money, supple-

161

mental to the announced State Fair premiums, was provided by
the organized breeders of the state's leading dairy stock. In
Johnston County, the Smithfield Tobacco Board of Trade, com-
bining the preferred state awards plan with a cash prize, offered
the local boy or girl tobacco champion a year's tuition to State
or any other college, plus $150 in cash. The runner up also won
the tuition aid, but only $100 cash.

4-H received another kind of support in 1936, and as in the
case of the commercial and professional donors, the benefits
were mutual. The new 4-H Service Clubs began to live up to
their name; being independent of the state's Honor Club, these
clubs were made up of the most committed former club folk in a
given county. Most of the membership had recently graduated
from 4-H. In Stanly County, a 1935 pioneer in this venture,
these young men and women organized service projects for
active 4-H'ers in church beautification, farm naming, and mail-
box improvement, as well as a banquet for the county's 4-H
council members. These activities led to Mr. Harrill's presenta-
tion of a plaque to Stanly's Short Course delegation as the
group with the state's best 1936 county records. In a related
local club contest, he gave a state banner to the Fallston Club of
Cleveland.

Negro 4-H'ers had a successful Short Course at A&T in late
August 1936 under the direction of Mrs. Lowe and J. W. Mit-
chell who reported that the delegates went home full of club
enthusiasm. This event may have prepared the membership for
the announcement in September that R. E. Jones, a graduate of
A&T who had been successful with 4-H programs as a local
agent in Craven County, had been hired as state Negro 4-H
Specialist. At the time of Jones's appointment, there were in 28
counties a total of 470 Negro clubs with a membership of 10,136
4-H'ers. This Warren County native took his place in Mitchell's
office at Greensboro, a happy event coming 11 long years after
John D. Wray, this state's first Negro club agent, had resigned
and left North Carolina. Mitchell's own pride in this recent
improvement in Negro programs among the old and the young
was reflected in the Extension Service Review article he pre-
pared for November 1936.

Early that same month Mr. Harrill travelled to Houston
with Schaub and Assistant Directors Goodman and McKimmon
for a regional Extension conference. The State Leader ad-
dressed the assembly on the subject of the green growth of 4-H

162

in North Carolina. He was present also when Mrs. McKimmon
received the distinguished service ruby from Epsilon Sigma Phi,
the national Extension fraternity. Returning to Raleigh, he filed
his annual report in which he revealed that in 97 counties the
state had over 40,000 white and Negro 4-H'ers in more than
1,300 separate clubs. Complete annual records had been turned
in by 56 percent of this membership.

At the December Extension Conference in Raleigh, Na-
tional Extension Director C. W. Warburton inspired Negro and
white agents alike. "Your work with 4-H Club boys and girls,"
he told them, "is the most important thing you do." National
Recreation Association Field Secretary W. P. Jackson addressed
the agents, too. He had been in the state to conduct the custom-
ary training schools for local club leaders. The Raleigh meeting
concluded with its own spirited tribute to Mrs. McKimmon, in
view of her recent Texas honor, and special words in memory of
former State Agricultural Club Agent S. J. Kirby were also said.
He had died October 19 in Walnut Cove, his home as Stokes
County Agent.

1937 was the first year that Mr. Harrill as State 4-H Leader
could report club statistics in a uniform and consolidated
fashion, thanks to the total youth program's renewed stability.
This condition was a result of the state's improved rural econ-
omy, the effectiveness of R. E. Jones's work among Negro club
members and leaders, and the appointment on April 1 of Cleve-
land Home Agent Frances MacGregor as North Carolina's first
Assistant State 4-H Leader. Her predecessors Elizabeth Corne-
lius and Ruth Current had worked under the more limited title
of Specialist in Girls 4-H Club Work. MacGregor's new duties
and title came about after Miss Current was elevated to the
position of State Home Agent on February 5. The apparently
unthinkable had also happened that day: Jane S. McKimmon
had resigned from that office, citing her age as the main ingre-
dient in her decision. Her resignation was not total, however.
After a vacation planned to last two months, she returned to
her other job as one of Dean Schaub's Assistant Directors.

The following tables and graphs prepared by Miss MacGreg-
or and Mr. Harrill are taken from the Dean's 1937 annual
report. They will be of particular interest to those of us who
have an appetite for numerical rather than narrative history. In
them club growth and improved productivity are clearly illus-
trated. For example. Table III shows that a total of 96 counties

163

had 4-H organizations with a record statewide membership of
43,657. Amounting to almost 25 percent of this total, the Negro
youth showed a better record of project completion than the
white 4-H'ers. The overall completion rate of 65 percent was the
best ever.

As Table VII and Table VIII suggest in convincing eco-
nomic terms, "4-H Trains Farm Youth in the Art of Living."
This productive declaration first became the theme of North
Carolina's club membership in 1937. Club radio programs popu-
larized this now famous sentence, which also served as the the-
sis of a promotional leaflet entitled "The Parents' Part in 4-H
Club Work," which Mr. Harrill wrote and distributed that
spring. To support his claim that ownership was essential to
thrift among rural youth, the State Leader declared: "To further
encourage the boy and girl they should be given the profits of
their work (after all expenses have been deducted). Nothing
could do more to destroy initiative and to discourage thrift than
to be deprived of ownership. That is exactly what happens
when John's calf becomes Dad's cow and Mary's poultry be-
comes Mother's hens."

In 1911 and 1912 Jane S. McKimmon had started out by
viewing club membership for rural girls in similar stewardship
terms. Later Homer Mask had particularly emphasized the busi-
ness side of 4-H, both in Catawba County as well as from his
Raleigh office. But in 1937 Mr. Harrill's gospel of responsible
ownership had a certain novelty born of the Depression. His
leaflet had a certain authority too, given the record club mem-
bers consistently made in outclassing the state's adult farmers
in per-acre yields of selected commodities. Table VII's annual
figures did not let Mr. Harrill down.

It had been agreed between Dean Schaub and Mrs.
McKimmon that her main work as Assistant Director following
her partial retirement and vacation would be the preparation of
a permanent record of her quarter century as this state's first
Home Demonstration Agent. When We're Green We Grow even-
tually matured out of this understanding, and Schaub's letter
accepting her dual decision in February 1937 contained two
sentences of pertinent composition advice: "This history should
be more than mere statistics and formal statements. The
human interest side is just as important if not more so than the
standards of measurements." The Dean also reminds us that
not even the impressive statistics used to portray 4-H in 1937
tell the year's complete story of the new art of living.

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175

REGISTERE
DUROC PId

|<iii<iMi>||p

^fti

Good project stewardship.

Indeed the new prospects for 4-H throughout the state were
nowhere more aptly suggested than in the astonishing achieve-
ments of the clubs in Mr. Harrill's native Cleveland County. At
the Raleigh Short Course in late July, for example, the best
county record, the best local club record, and the most outstand-
ing individual 4-H'ers in the state came from there. The new
Assistant 4-H Leader saw with satisfaction that the plan she
had established before leaving the Shelby office had worked
well. Also honored by the success of Cleveland's 4-H'ers and
Miss MacGregor was Rosalind Redfearn, the indefatigable
Anson Home Agent who had groomed Frances as a club girl
and encouraged her to study for a career in Extension at Wo-
man's College.

This same Short Course was exceptional in two other re-
spects. The 890 registered members set a record, and the propor-
tion of 458 girls to 432 boys, representing 85 counties, was more
balanced than ever before. (White girls still outnumbered white
boys almost 2 to 1 in total statewide membership.) Adult leaders
from five clubs were also present, in addition to 28 home agents

176

r

ii

Anson's Ada Braswell.

and 40 farm agents. 1937—
roughly coincident with former
club and County Agent Kerr
Scott's becoming Commissioner
of Agriculture — was the first
year in which every county had
a white farm agent. There were
white home agents in 76 coun-
ties. Assistant county agents
were at work in 80 counties; as-
sistant home agents, however,
were employed in Johnston, Guil-
ford, and Nash only.

Thirty-one counties shared
the services of 29 Negro county
agents, and 14 counties had
Negro home agents. (Warren
County was exceptional in hav-
ing a Negro home agent but no
white agent in this line of
work.) The record 400 Negro
boys and girls who came from
30 counties to the Short Course
at A&T early that September
showed by their new 4-H uni-
forms that their club life was
more meaningful than ever
before. There were other indica-
tions that R. E. Jones' leader-
ship was being followed. State
officers elected there by his

Negro club members were Jes-
sie Francis of Halifax, president; Charlie Hopkins, Pitt, first
vice president; Clyde Miller, Iredell, second vice president; Mag-
nolia Bullock, Edgecombe, third vice president; Helen Richard-
son, Anson, secretary; and Rebecca Lawrence, Durham, his-
torian.

In addition to these two annual events and the usual sche-
dule of 4-H camps and National Camp, 1937's summer saw the
second annual Wildlife Camp, held at Swannanoa in late
August, enroll 56 campers from 31 counties. The unprecedented
event of the summer involved only former club members, how-

177

ever. The Older Youth Conference, attracting young people
between the ages of 18 and 25 from the state's Service Clubs,
was convened at State College, June 8-12. Mr. Harrill and Miss
MacGregor planned and carried out the ambitious program of
social and instructional sessions at the campus YMCA. Officers
elected to carry forward this meeting of former 4-H'ers another
year were President Brent Meadows of Oxford and Dorothy
Banks, the secretary, from Trenton. In addition to planning
another conference, these leaders and each delegate pledged
themselves to the formation of an Older Youth Group in as
many counties as possible. Seen as another bridge between 4-H
and adult demonstration concerns, each county group would
have the purpose of aiding young men and women in intelli-
gently selecting the vocations most suitable to them. Another
former 4-H'er who was selected for an honor and special duties
in 1937 was Iredell's Joe Pou. As a rising senior in animal hus-
bandry at State College he went as a Danforth Summer Fellow
to the American Youth Foundation Camp on Lake Michigan.

The 1937 State Fair was a repeat performance of 4-H's
enlarged role in the 1936 event, with the exception that the area
housing the exhibits by club girls was enlarged and the premi-
ums increased. It was not a customary autumn for 4-H in gen-
eral, however. In October Elton Clark and Stanly Jones of Dur-
ham County represented North Carolina at the National Dairy
Show in Columbus, Ohio. They had won this trip during Short
Course by placing first in the new Dairy Production Demon-
stration Contest. Dairy Specialist A. C. Kimrey, who with John
Arey had recently brought out a new 4-H dairy manual, went
out of state with them. In late November and early December,
six Tar Heel girls accompanied by Miss MacGregor and Cum-
berland Home Agent Elizabeth Gainey represented the state's
4-H membership at National Club Congress. For the first time,
one of them— canning stalwart Mary Frances Thompson, also
of Durham County — came home a national winner of a $400 col-
lege scholarship. In rural electrification Sarah Amelia Gainey
of Cumberland placed second in the region, and her county
neighbor Pearl Simpson received honorable mention in the
National 4-H health contest. The national style revue found
Anson's Ada Braswell placed among the first-place girls. In the
state shows, conducted in July and October, her plaid gingham
evening dress had outshone 200 entries from 35 counties. Ada
was another of Rosalind Redfearn's champions. While Helen

178

■^

i

'-i KiORTB C4ROLINA ■«■' ■

K4&M

Frances MacGregor is on the left in the 1938 National Camp delega-
tion. The uniforms worn by Roger Pollock, Louise Bunn, Elizabeth
Randle, and Oland Peele bear few resemblances to those worn by
delegates earlier in the decade. The State Leader's outfit has chang-
ed too.

Whitlock, the state winner in home economics records from
Stanly, did not place in the national contest, Vance's Lou Ella
Dickerson placed second in the region in foods and nutrition.

179

The club emphasis on wildlife and conservation in the later 1930s led
to scenes like these in the years to come all over North Carolina.

180

She won a kerosene-operated refrigerator donated by the Servel
Company.

The December issue of EFN elaborately publicized this
group's 4-H achievements. The paper also ran the following
poem on the front page:

THE DEMONSTRATION WAY

I'd rather see a lesson

than hear one any day.
I'd rather you would walk with me

than merely show the way.
The eye's a better teacher

and more willing than the ear.
And counsel is confusing;

but example's always clear.
The best of all the teachers

are those who live their creeds,
For to see good put in action

is what everybody needs.
I can soon learn to do it

if you let me see it done.
I can watch your hands in action,

but your tongue too fast may run.
And the counsel you are doing

may be very fine and true.
But I'd rather get my lesson

by observing what you do.

— Submitted by: C. R. Ammons,
Acting Agent, Harnett County.

Extension's overall commitment to "learning by doing," in
view of Mr. Harrill's new "art of living" theme, did not amount
to a confusion of ends in the continuing effort "To Make the
Best Better." It is clear, however, that 1937 was a year of sys-
tematic promotion and sound 4-H achievement. The state office,
for example, distributed a 4-H file system to the organized coun-
ties; section headings were as follows: correspondence, organi-
zation, club programs, judging teams, records, recreation, pro-
ject information, and publicity. This office also distributed new
materials, such as a brief account of the background of 4-H in
North Carolina and a discussion of the meaning of each "H" of
the clover. In some counties, agents came up with unusual pro-

181

grams or promotions of their own. Avery County boosters estab-
lished Lees-McRae College scholarships of $75 for the leading
local 4-H boy and girl. Agent Cooper in Johnston enlarged an
earlier membership drive by sponsoring a 4-H basketball tour-
nament involving 30 teams in March. National Extension Re-
view praised the Jones County Service Club in an early spring
article. At year's end, basking in sound club statistics as never
before, Mr. Harrill reported that radio coverage of 4-H had
reached a new intensity the previous January. Two Saturdays
each month Raleigh's WPTF had aired regular programs; spe-
cial publicity had been arranged for Older Youth Conference in
June, the Raleigh Short Course, the State Fair, and State-
National Achievement Day. Programs in connection with this
latter event, of course, had been state and national radio's club
beginning nearly a decade before. In 1937 stations in Durham
and Charlotte also provided 4-H'ers and Extension personnel
with sometimes weekly time on the air; thus the training of
rural youth in the art of living was, in fact, the most compre-
hensive ever.

In 1938 radio's part in the 4-H program was continued and
enlarged. Mr. Harrill prepared a mimeographed guide for the
WPTF broadcasts, the twice-monthly programs involving him
or Miss MacGregor with club members from more than 20 coun-
ties, each program following or anticipating the important
events and developments of the club year. After Ruth Current,
for example, reestablished the Collegiate 4-H Club at Woman's
College, the program for November 12 discussed the implica-
tions of this effort for other college campuses in the state. Even
more active than WPTF was Station WAIR in Winston-Salem.
Beginning in April it produced a 4-H show every Saturday, the
format being essentially the one Mr. 4-H had devised in
Raleigh. WAIR's listening area was smaller than WPTF's, how-
ever.

Agencies and businesses outside of broadcasting also de-
voted time, space, and money to 4-H as never before. The state's
newspapers, operating on the theory that an outstanding mem-
ber is the best publicity any organization can have, individual-
ized club news expertly. Tar Heel 4-H was also featured in two
leading farm magazines, The Southern Planter and The Pro-
gressive Farmer. Miss MacGregor's excellent article on basic
4-H Club needs appeared in the October Extension Service Re-
view. Equally vital financial support, most often in scholar-

182

ships, was continued by Chilean Nitrate's Educational Bureau,
the Barrett Company, the National Cotton Seed Crushers Asso-
ciation, the Federal Cartridge Company, and the Atlantic Coast
Line Railroad. The State Fair and various cattle breeding asso-
ciations provided premiums, actual livestock, and supplemental
support to 4-H. In every case of a designated winner being
unable to accept his monetary award because of age or conflict-
ing plans, the money reverted to the 4-H Scholarship Fund
which Mr. Harrill had begun to administer. This source, plus
the establishment of the I. O. Schaub Loan Fund in November
1938 by the state's Farm Agents Association, brought added
security to the overall 4-H program. The McKimmon Fund, the
model for the Schaub tribute, was then worth $11,239.7L

Tar Heel Banker, which had run an article about 4-H in its
April issue, was another source of new financial support, sup-
plying two round-trip cruise tickets to Cuba for the club boy and
girl who made the largest number of farm surveys prior to June.
William Hudgins of Gates and outstanding Lou Ella Dickerson
of Vance were the winners. The previous year she had been one
of the beneficiaries of the National Committee on 4-H Club
Work. In 1938 this Chicago organization's sponsorship of food
conservation, food preparation, dress revue, home economics
records, handicrafts, rural electrification, health, and home beau-
tification enabled six winning girls to attend National Club
Congress. (There was no North Carolina winner in the last
category, a new one.) State Health Queen Ruth King Mason of
Iredell was named one of the eight healthiest 4-H'ers in the
nation. State vice president Margaret Wagoner of Guilford, the
winner in home improvement, did not go to Chicago; but her
exhibit of bedroom furniture won a blue ribbon there. McDo-
well's Doris Noblitt also received a white ribbon in this national
contest. Attending the Congress but not placing among the top
stylists was Mildred Edwards of Pitt. Her victory in the state
dress revue in October had been unusual, however, for the 42
contestants had been divided as never before into four sections,
with a winner in each category. Mildred had won both her class
and the sweepstakes with a lined woolen coat and accessories
including lingerie. Evening gown, washable dress, and fall out-
fit were the other classes. An even more successful girl both
here and in Chicago was Jackson County's pretty Carmen
Nicholson. As state handicraft champion she won third place in
the national contest and brought home a $100 scholarship.

183

At the Raleigh Short Course in July handicraft classes had
attracted additional attention. Mrs. Spencer Dean, using copper
portions of state-confiscated, illegal stills, taught boys and girls
how to fashion ash trays and match box holders out of the
metal. Community singing and other staples of 4-H gatherings
filled in the week, with the Alamance team of Dewey Covington
and Troy Dixon winning the right to represent North Carolina
in Columbus at the National Dairy Show in October. Ten new
members were tapped into Honor Club, which as an organiza-
tion was living up to its motto of "Service," especially in con-
nection with Short Course. Cleveland County, now boasting
Governor Hoey as another example of local excellence, again
won a plaque as the best club county and a banner for Beth-
ware as the state's most outstanding local club. Registration for
the week was 848 — including 399 boys and 449 girls from 95
counties. The week's recreation had been under the direction of
H. W. "Pop" Taylor, more notable for his work in swine exten-
sion than in Mr. Harrill's customary department. To the theme
of "Building a Richer Rural Life," every speaker turned, none
more touchingly than the Governor, who was accorded the
unusual honor, as a special friend of Mr. Harrill, of speaking on
Friday night just prior to the installation of officers and the
annual candlelighting ceremony.

Mr. 4-H was a proud man indeed that summer, full of a
pride compounded of many parts. One, certainly, was the an-
nouncement in late June that Max Culp, the Iredell 4-H'er of
unusual distinction, had won the coveted Payne Foundation
Fellowship. Thus, for the second time a Tar Heel member went
to Washington to study at USDA. The enhancement of the
camping program expanded Harrill's chest also. In the summer
of 1938 isolated county outings were almost completely replaced
by organized camps at five different sites. White Lake, Swan-
nanoa, and Indian Springs near Hoffman even had fulltime
directors. Camp Leach in Beaufort, John's River in Caldwell,
and a site at historic Jamestown in Virginia were in steady,
supervised service also. There was some 4-H camping as well at
Neuse Forest and King's Mountain. Handsome camp booklets
were prepared by various counties; the Lumberton paper put out
a supplement entitled "Robeson County 4-H Camper." Wildlife
Camp, held at Indian Springs, was a special success; 78 mem-
bers from 28 counties studied there, aided by a large faculty and
an elaborate mimeographed program. One of the choice courses

184

was Charlotte Hilton Greene's "Bird Study." The students,
among whom were outstanding future leaders including Com-
missioner of Agriculture Jim Graham and longtime State 4-H
Specialist and Camp Director Fred H. Wagoner, drew Mrs.
Greene's highest praise, as the following remarks show:

If any one were to doubt the value of such work, I
should like to have it possible for him to spend a sim-
ilar week among 4-H'ers. I came back feeling these
young people — and they are duplicated in every state
throughout our land — are going to build a brave new
world. They, it seems to me, are the hope of the South,
or whatever section of the country they live in.
I slept with them, ate with them, walked with them,
rode trucks with them, swam with them. And always
we talked. Of their work, their play, their homes, their
friends, their schools, their hopes, their disappoint-
ments. And I tell you this North Carolina rural youth
is a pretty fine asset to the State.
There was, for instance, the 12-year-old daughter of a

This model curb market was a feature of Short Course and anticipated
the food production and marketing emphasis of WWII.

185

tenant farmer, quaint, attractive, capable. The oldest
of six children, she 'helped mother with everything'.
She made most of her own dresses, oh yes, these 4-H
club girls begin making doll's clothes at 10 years of
age, and by the time they are 13 are often making
their own little cotton dresses. The majority of the
girls there made most of their own dresses, attractive
little wash dresses that cost anywhere from 40 to 70 or
80 cents. She could do most anything on the farm
except chop wood and plow. She did most of the iron-
ing, except Daddie's shirts— 'she just couldn't manage
them'.

A sophomore in high school, this small maid knows
her people cannot send her to college. But she wants
to be a home economics teacher. And so, two years in
advance she plans to write East Carolina Teacher's
Training College, at Greenville, to put her on the wait-
ing list for those who may work their way through.
The past year she worked in the school cafeteria and
earned her lunches.

She rode home with me, this small maid, and another
young girl from an eastern tenant farm. They dis-
cussed the things they had done and seen; what they
had learned. They talked intelligently of crotalaria
and lespedeza, and what they would do for the land;
of eroded gullies and how they could be taken care of;
of fence row cover and thickets that would be a haven
to wildlife.

There was that other small girl who got so much out
of everything. Particularly will I remember how she
enjoyed the butter she spread with such care on her
bread. 'I like this butter. We do not have any at home,
for we do not have a cow. But,' thoughtfully, 'I'm
going to tell Daddy we'd better all work and save
towards a cow, for we need the milk and butter, and
our land needs the manure.' I thought of Russel
Lord's story of the old French peasant who lived on
the farm that had belonged to his ancestors for over
1,100 years. He did not use horses to work the farm,
but cows, for cows did more for the land. And this
land, in use for over a thousand years, was not worn
out.

186

Our own land, perhaps, may be better when it comes
under the care of these intelligently trained boys and
girls, in a world that is finally becoming conser-
vation-minded. The South still has a long way to go to
attain a proper attitude towards its land and resour-
ces, but the feet of its 4-H boys and girls now take the
lead.

A natural leader herself, Mrs. Greene became a Wildlife Camp
regular in the years ahead, willingly transporting her consider-
able nature library to the appointed late summer sites across
the state.

The second Older Youth Conference held at State College in
early June 1938 had been devoted to the theme of "Community
Building." Response of the 115 young men and women who
attended was favorable; since the first conference 30 service
groups had been organized in 24 counties, and the election of
state officers for another year gave this new program the cre-
dentials of an annual event. In addition to the State Fair, a suc-
cessful but routine week, the Short Course at A&T in late
August had attracted considerable attention. Several of 1937's
officers were returned to office by the 421 boys and girls who
represented the 12,791 members belonging to the total of 397
clubs for Negroes in 31 counties. In the first state judging con-
test among this membership, 20 teams competed. There was
also a spelling match, plus stimuli to ongoing local club cam-
paigns such as "Fix-it Week" and community beautification.
Mrs. Lowe reported that the college loan fund for 4-H girls,
begun by her and eight Negro home agents in early 1937, had
shown regular growth; but no award would be made until 1939.

The ultimate source of pride for Mr. Jones and his staff in
Greensboro or Miss MacGregor and Mr. Harrill in Raleigh was
the total statewide enrollment; it stood at over 46,000, with
members in all but three counties. Over 70 percent of the pro-
jects undertaken had been completed. "If you want a winner,
pick a 4-H Club member." This popular saying went across the
state like a green echo, and it was easy to see that this reputa-
tion could be perpetuated. Of the 84 female agents at work, 21
were former 4-H'ers. Among the men on the Extension staff, 50
of the 180 agents had been club members.

Our customary history lessons have taught us to think of
1939 in particular as months of reverberating turmoil in Europe

187

where World War II loomed. Closer home there was brighter,
even pastoral news, however. It was a time for celebrating in
May both the thirtieth anniversary of agricultural youth pro-
grams in North Carolina and the twenty-fifth year of operation
for the Cooperative Extension Service. The original Corn Club
in Hertford County may have seemed as old as Plymouth Rock
to the state's rural, post-Depression youth, as The Progressive
Farmer named former Club Agent Schaub its "Man of the
Year." Even 1926 and Mr. Harrill's four demonstration counties
for organized 4-H were remote to the experiences of many
younger club volunteers and agents. Yet no local leader or
worker or any member could mdss the importance of one of the
State Club Leader's special announcements. With the spreading
of his clover program into Burke, Ashe, and Alleghany, 4-H
green for the first time completely covered every county in the
Tar Heel State. Still, the year's club theme of "Going Forward"
suggested that 1939, like spring, was also a season of transition.
Every shade of the program's success and change, for ex-
ample, was represented by skits, songs, and dances in the

Club members took over all parts of the church services on 4-H
Sunday.

188

Negro 4-H'ers working at A&T in 1939 as a way of paying their
expenses.

absorbing historical "Pageant of Progress" enacted on July 27
by 4-H'ers from 15 counties during Short Course in Raleigh.
Both Mrs. McKimmon and Dean Schaub took part and were
paid special tribute. The new King and Queen of Health were
crowned during the ceremony; they were Guy Deck of Gaston
and Opal Kingston of Stokes. Mr. Harrill and Miss MacGregor
assisted by Madeline Stevens of the National Recreational As-
sociation had arranged this grand affair in Riddick Stadium.
Home Agent At-Large Rose EUwood Bryan directed it with help
from John Fox, the Assistant Agricultural Editor who narrated,
and David S. Weaver, who handled lighting and sound. Music
for the pageant and throughout the week was under the baton
of Dr. F. Stanly Smith, Director of Music for Raleigh schools
and musician for the First Baptist Church downtown. Friday
afternoon Governor and Mrs. Hoey served all delegates punch
and cookies in the executive mansion. Dr. Smith's admiration
for Mr. Harrill and the statewide 4-H program inspired a new
song; he set the 4-H pledge to original music. In accepting this
unique anniversary gift, Mr. 4-H cordially extended it to the
1,250,000 club members nationwide, with the recommendation
that the monthly club meetings in every state be concluded with
this new composition. North Carolina's 1,516 clubs — with
49,066 members— compared well with the entire country's
74,000 separate 4-H units.

189

There were, in fact, numberless 4-H gatherings across this
state alone. Local and county fairs and the State Fair bristled
with club activities. (See the schedule.) Achievement Days, 115
that fall, were more elaborate than ever before. Under Frances
MacGregor's guidance, leader training sessions had been held
from the coast to the far mountains during the early months. A
special subject discussed among female volunteers was room
improvement. But everywhere the Assistant State Leader
opened these meetings by alluding to her 1938 article about the
future development of rural North Carolina's children. She cited
again the five basic needs in this work. Foremost was re-
sponsible local leadership. Commitment to 4-H from all levels of
Extension and programs or projects for every member's initia-
tive came next. Training for all boys and girls in home and
farm business followed. Last she urged that young people pay
more attention to what is marketable and how to market it.
Jane S. McKimmon had started her career among girls by
making this same point.

1939 N.C. STATE FAIR
DAILY 4-H PROGRAM OF EVENTS

To be Participated in by Representatives of North Carolina's

50,000 Club Members

Headquarters: Main Exhibit Hall
TUESDAY:

9:00 a.m. — Visit 4-H Headquarters and exhibits in Main

Exhibit Hall.
10:00 a.m. — 4-H Jersey show in Livestock Building.
1:00 p.m. — Special 4-H radio program direct from
Fairgrounds.
1-4:00 p.m. — 4-H pig show and judging in Swine Building.
Exhibit halls open for inspection of exhibits until 10:00 p.m.

WEDNESDAY:

9:00 a.m. — Visit 4-H exhibits and general exhibits.
10:00 a.m. — 4-H Guernsey show and judging in Livestock
Building.
1:00 p.m. — Special radio program direct from Fairgrounds.
1-4:00 p.m. — 4-H baby beef show and judging in Livestock
Building.
Exhibit halls open for inspection of exhibits until 10:00 p.m.

190

THURSDAY:

9:00 a.m. — Visit 4-H and general exhibits.
1:00 p.m. — Special 4-H radio program direct from Main
Exhibit Hall.
All exhibit halls open for inspection of exhibits until 10:00
p.m.

FRIDAY:

Free admission will be granted to all 4-H Club members
and coaches on Friday.

9:00 a.m. — Visit headquarters, 4-H, and general exhibits.
9:30 a.m. — 4-H seed judging contest begins in Main

Exhibit Hall.
9:30 a.m. — 4-H livestock judging contest in Judging

Pavilion.
9:30 a.m. — 4-H poultry judging contest in Poultry Building.
1:00 p.m. — Special 4-H radio program direct from Main

Exhibit Hall.
7:00 p.m. — Annual 4-H judging banquet for members of

judging teams and coaches in main dining hall

at N.C. State College.

SATURDAY:

9:00 a.m. — All exhibits open for inspection.
4:00 p.m. Every day is 4-H Day at the 1939 North Caro-
lina State Fair!

"The Enrichment of Country Life Through 4-H Club Work"

Mr. Harrill's typical speech in 1939 was a comprehensive
view of the state's complex club past. Out of this puzzle he put
together a commemorative booklet entitled "History and Sum-
mary of Thirty Years of 4-H Club Work in North Carolina, 1909-
1939." (It was his usual habit to refer to all of the early clubs as
4-H.) Noting that presently "the average yield of corn for 4-H
Club members. . . was 43.1 bushels per acre, or more than twice
the average yield for adult farmers in the state," he worked his
way to a conclusion with three points:

It would be difficult to estimate the number of people
who have been reached and directly helped by the 4-H
program during this thirty-year period. Since 1926
there has been approximately 500,000 boys and girls

191

enrolled in the 4-H program. Preceding this period, it
would be safe to say that there was another quarter of
a million who were reached by the program — a total
number of over three-quarters of a million who have
been directly benefited by the 4-H program since its
beginning in North Carolina.

It is impossible to give a description of the growth
and development of this program that would ade-
quately tell just what it has meant in the development
of a sane agricultural program in this state. Its
growth in size is overshadowed by the growth in its
objectives which are and will continue to be the de-
velopment of a citizenship able to sensibly cope with
the ever increasing standard of living in rural
America.

The test of any educational program is the character
and the type of men and women trained, together
with their contributions to the welfare of the com-
munity and the state in general. If measured on this
basis 4-H Club work will again measure up to its high
objective. Outstanding examples of community leader-
ship may be found in practically every community in
the state, attributed largely to training in 4-H Club
work. The present State Commissioner of Agriculture
was one of North Carolina's former 4-H Club mem-
bers; the State Leader and the Assistant State Leader
received training in 4-H club work, as did approxi-
mately 50 percent of our farm and home demonstra-
tion agents. Especially is this outstanding among the
younger agents in our state. Also we find former 4-H
club members taking prominent places in the fields of
medicine, law, religion, industry, and the business life
of our state, bringing to us anew the thought of
Theodore Roosevelt, who said, "If you are going to do
anything permanent for the average man, you must
begin before he is a man; the chance of success lies in
working with the boy and not with the man." 4-H
Club work is justly proud of its contribution to the
welfare of rural living and life in general in our state.

These were at least five uncommon sources of this new 4-H
pride during the last days of these green years.

192

May 14, 1939 was this state's first 4-H Church Sunday, a
day set apart to emphasize spiritual development as an es-
sential to good citizenship and effective living. It was Rural Life
Sunday for youth. In a variety of ways, adaptive boys and girls
took active parts in the worship services of their largely rural
communities. Church bulletins prepared by local clubs were
distributed by uniformed 4-H'ers. Numerous ministers invited a
club girl to read the scripture lesson and a boy to lead in prayer.
Elsewhere special music by members marked the occasion;
doubtless the morning offering was received by others.
Raleigh's WPTF, in its weekly 4-H program, had given special
attention to the observance. State President Archie Prevatte of
Robeson and Dr. P. D. Miller, Pastor of the First Presbyterian
Church in the Capital City, were featured. Throughout the state
campaigns for better church attendance and the beautification
of church grounds had also led up to this special sabbath of
club enrichment. Altar flowers arranged by 4-H'ers placed the
beauty of spring in front of congregations all over North Caro-
lina.

A very special day for the State's Negro club members in
particular came in July with the first edition of The 4-H Mirror,
Mr. Jones's official monthly newspaper. Among the most signifi-
cant stories reported in the initial issues were these three. One-
year loans in home economics had been awarded through Mrs.
Lowe to Jessie Frances of Halifax, Annie Jeffries of Alamance,
and Dorothy Parrish of Durham. One of them entered A&T; the
other two chose North Carolina College. Two Negro 4-H teams
had made an excellent score in the judging contests at the
World Poultry Congress in Cleveland at mid-summer. Represent-
ing Craven County were Roosevelt Bryant, John Greene, and
Lathan Wallace. Agent Otis Evans was their coach. Guiding
the Alamance team of Harlow Jeffries and LeFoy Hayes was
Agent B. A. Hall. A third Negro team from Hertford had been
rated "Good" in this Ohio contest.

These Negro 4-H'ers in particular were special members at
the A&T Short Course which in late August brought together a
record 600 boys and girls with agents, leaders, and specialists.
This impressive crowd attracted wide attention, especially in
the Norfolk, Virginia, Journal and Guide.

A white Wilson County youth was even more widely pub-
licized for his own excellence in 4-H and the related achieve-
ments of state club life here. In April, Extension Farm News

193

announced that Walton Thompson's five years of project
records had won him a four-year scholarship at State. Chilean
Nitrate was again the donor. May brought the news that
Walton was to be one of the four club delegates to National 4-H
Camp. There he was selected to speak on NBC's "National
Farm and Home Hour" June 19. The next month he and a club
girl from Iowa were chosen to represent the nation's huge 4-H
population at the World Congress on Education sponsored by
Columbia University. In New York, August 14-16, our 17-year-
old told this international gathering how 4-H helped young
people take their places in a democracy. Between his selection
for this job and his delivery, Walton had been among those
tapped for the Honor Club during Short Course. That same
week two other Tar Heel young men from Mecklenburg had won
the coveted state dairy production team demonstration in competi-
tion with 10 other county teams. In October at the National
Dairy Show in San Francisco, John McDowell and Eugene
Berryhill took top honors. Besides receiving $250.00 scholar-
ships from the Kraft Phenix Cheese Corporation, they appeared
on radio's popular Kraft Music Hall with Bing Crosby. Mr.
Harrill and Oscar Phillips, the boys' agent, were on hand too;
the group's expenses to and from California were paid by the
North Carolina Dairy Products Association.

Not Walton Thompson or young McDowell and Berryhill
claimed all of the national victory circle for North Carolina in
1939, however. Among the seven girls who represented the state

Millstone volleyball.

194

The Rowan Cabin at Swannanoa as it went up.

at National Club Congress December 1-9, Edna Owens of Jack-
son County shared in the $700 cash awards distributed among
the national winners in the home grounds beautification. State
dress revue winner Johnnie Faye Barnes of Wilson placed well
in her rigorous national contest, while two girls who were
represented in Chicago only by their window treatment and
clothing exhibits won cash awards. Both girls had won top
honors at the recent State Fair. A special treat for those girls
actually making the long train trip to Club Congress was the
stopover in Washington where Eleanor Roosevelt received them
and Miss MacGregor at the White House.

The Older Youth Conference, held in June 1939, was
another confident achievement. Exhibited in its theme — "To-
ward a More Abundant Country Life" — were Extension's oldest
concerns of food for our families, feed for our livestock, and
fertility for our soil. Yet there was a twofold source of almost
boundless pride in the more active 4-H circles that same month.
We were "Going Forward" in recreation, too. The old camp at
Swannanoa had been renovated, and the grand new facilities at
Millstone Camp in the Sandhills were finally ready for service.

The Swannanoa improvements amounted to another
chapter in the story of regional cooperation that had built this
original state 4-H camp in 1929. A decade later, under Camp
Director Ned Tucker, with all labor supplied by the National
Youth Administration, eight new cottages, again paid for by
county subscriptions, were constructed. Two more were

195

planned. Unique fund raising schemes ultimately paid all of the
cabin expenses. Nowhere was economic originality more evi-
dent than in Salisbury where Rowan agents Nell Kennett and
W. N. Wood arranged an honest-to-goodness hen party. The
admission price was one live bird. In just one evening their
party produced enough chickens to pay for the county's new
Swannanoa cabin. Local poultry dealers bought the donated
flock the next morning for $150. In addition to the camp cabins,
with other funds the mountain site was fitted out with a new
stove, 100 new mattresses, a porch for the old dining hall, plus a
large chimney and fireplace. The camp road was also improved
as a part of an extensive landscaping project.

Sampson County, long a forerunner in county and state
camping developments, made the first scheduled stay at "The
Rocks" or Millstone the week of July 3-8, 1939. Followed by
4-H'ers from Camden, Perquimans, and Pasquotank, then
groups from Alexander and Anson, this first gathering, with
Tom Cash of Hamlet as Camp Director, christened a camp of
unexpected and unexcelled natural beauty, rarity, and tran-
quility. Located within a large area which had been under
development by the Land Utilization Division of the Re-
settlement Administration of USDA since 1935, the camp's
boundaries enclosed 1,000 acres. As part of the Sandhills
Project headquartered at Hoffman in Richmond County, Mill-
stone was near Indian Camp Recreational Park which, as al-
ready indicated, had been rented May 15 for 4-H'ers to use
during the summer of 1938. Charles Scott of the North Carolina
Department of Conservation and Development had served as
director. It was this arrangement which first endeared 4-H'ers
themselves to the general area, but Indian Camp's 10 cabins,
7-acre lake, and comfortable lodge could not compete with the
rustic appeal of Millstone at completion.

The first general plan of Millstone 4-H Camp had been
drawn in October 1935. Grady Bain, Chief of Project Develop-
ment, and Mr. Harrill were chiefly concerned, although a very
old friend of Tar Heel 4-H had been the initial line of force. He
was Jimmy Gray, who had left Chilean Nitrate to become
Assistant Director, Region IV, for Resettlement, with an office
in Raleigh. 1936 saw little progress at the proposed campsite
because the three original owners of the earmarked land were
slow in accepting the government's terms for their property. In
1937, however, a federal booklet entitled "The What and Why of

196

the Sandhills Project" showed that the permanent group camp
designed for 4-H at "The Rocks" was now an active proposition.
By Christmas of 1938 the Federal Government had completed
the facility; it consisted of the following:

One earth dam with concrete core wall, and mass spill-
way, impounding 18 acres of water with a fully
equipped bathing beach and diving tower.
One seven room frame dwelling with a screen porch.
One complete water system with deep well pump and
pressure tank, electrically operated by a Delco power
plant.

One frame Mess Hall and recreational building 80' x
70', with asbestos shingle roof.

Twelve bunkhouses, each containing eight built-in
bunks. These houses were built in two groups and
with each group was a combination latrine and wash
room containing laundry tubs, showers, and complete
hot water heating system.

One 18' X 32' frame building to be used as a Craft
Shop.

One bunk house with four built-in bunks to be used as
cook's quarters.

One complete deep well water system with elevated
tank connected with the Mess Hall, latrines and care-
takers house, and a complete sewerage system with
septic tank serving the latrines and mess hall.

Although the camp was not as large as Mr. Harrill had
hoped — one important omission was a separate recreation hall —
and despite months of delay in late 1938 and the first half of
1939 in getting a proper lease from either the federal or state
officials, the State Leader from first to last was awe struck by
Millstone. He loved to tell campers of Mr. Gray's initial un-
expected phone call offering the camp, and of their two-weeks
later visit to the proposed site. They made a pile of white rocks
in the pine grove. Afoot they at last arrived where the dark
waters of Rocky Fork Creek circled around huge, overhung
rocks. "What do you think?" Jimmy Gray had asked. Mr. 4-H
replied: "I don't believe it, but I like it."

Clearly the slow growth of this desire into long-needle,
sandy reality was worth savoring. On the spot where these men
talked, thousands of club campers would eventually be pausing

197

It's astonishing to realize how many young people have worked things
out at Millstone.

for evening vespers; the deep commitment to Millstone was con-
tagious. As long as the $40,000 construction project was under-
way, Sandhills Project Supervisor Frank Eatman was faithful
to the dream, regularly supplying Mr. Harrill with both formal
and informal assistance and advice. With the decision on Janu-
ary 19, 1939 to transfer the completely furnished camp and sur-
rounding projects to the state's Department of Conservation
and Development, other men less instrumental than Eatman

198

but willing to aid the 4-H Office supported turning over the
camp to State College that first year for $1. These men included
State Forester J. S. Holmes and T. W. Morse, who was in charge
of state parks. Mr. Harrill's form letter to Extension personnel
on the availability of the camp to 4-H'er went out March 22. It
said in part that use of the new facilities for a four-day period
would cost $1.50 per person, with a minimum charge of $75 for
each scheduled camp. This money paid the cooks and main-
tained the plant. Director Cash and his staff of two, one on the
waterfront and one for handicrafts and nature study, were paid
out of other funds.

Above the large fireplace at one end of the dining hall, the
first campers read the following message on a plaque:

Genuinely interested in the welfare of young people,
this camp serves to enrich the lives of farm boys and
girls. It stands for the finer and nobler things of life
and is a monument to the untiring efforts of those
who made it possible.

In addition to the early visits by county 4-H groups to Mill-
stone, it was the site of the 1939 Wildlife Conservation Camp.
This outing was "the best in the South," according to Mr.
McCullough of the sponsoring Federal Cartridge Company. Of
the 80 boys and girls plus the 20 adults in attendance, he
observed that "North Carolina is coming to the front very
rapidly in wildlife conservation in the nation." Perhaps it was
this outstanding group's departure from Millstone, it may have
been the fine memories of Mr. Eatman, but something about
this rare place of the human spirit convinced Mr. Harrill that
across the shaded camp's roadway an imaginary sign was sus-
pended in air. On the sign he saw and always helped others to
see four simple sentences. They go with Millstone: they typify
as well the vision of the green years of 4-H in North Carolina.
You will leave this place a different person. Everything that
could be done has been done to help you leave here a better per-
son. The answer is in your response. We hope it will be a better
person.

199

IV

BEING:

THE COMMUNITY OF

THE PRESENT

201

Growing: The 1940s

Extension and club pioneer C. R. Hudson died in Raleigh,
March 3, 1940. Since he had come to North Carolina from
Alabama in 1907, no other person had responded more directly
to black and white rural folks. In May death came in South
Carolina for Asbury Francis Lever, the former congressman
who in 1914 had coauthored the bill that everywhere became
Extension's charter. Then December 1940 brought to the State
4-H Office the saddening news that John Bradford had passed
away. This British native's recreation class during early short
courses had inspired Mr. Harrill's state leadership to hold club
play an equal partner with club work in North Carolina. This
concept of 4-H was now reaching its own summertime of rapid
growth.

To assist him and Miss MacGregor, Mr. Harrill had added
Dan F. Holler as a man Friday to visit western counties before
the new decade was a month old. The new County Agent At-
Large had been working as an agent in Wilkes County. That
fall Holler furthered his schooling at State after marrying. At
A&T similar growth pressures were leading to even more per-
manent staff for 4-H. To replace Hudson, John W. Mitchell was
appointed State Agent for Negro Work in March, with J. W.
Jeffries taking over as district agent in April. Both men would
be available to R. E. Jones who was steadily expanding the 4-H
program for Negro youth beyond the 28 counties he had begun
concentrating on in 1936. With the clover program spreading all
over among both races, it is clear that growth, not death,
claimed the Tar Heel 4-H heart for the decade of World War H.
Vigorous mobilization was underway long before Pearl Harbor.

EFN announced in February 1940 that outstanding Walton
Thompson had again been selected to represent the nation's
club boys and girls, now on NBC's "Town Meeting of the Air."
What the Wilson County youth reported on the radio has been
lost; but if his honor had come at the year's end, there would
have been good news aplenty from the Old North State.

Thirty-one boys and girls from as many counties in July
had held the state's first Wildlife Conservation Camp for
Negroes at Wake County's Whispering Pines site. No previous
summer, statistics show, had been more productive of livestock
and field crops by black and white club members. The McKim-
mon Loan Fund now boasted almost $14,000 in assets. The blue

202

ribbon group in Chicago at Na-
tional Congress had included
Health King Vernon Duncan of
Chatham. His friend Franklin
Teague of Alamance, state
winner in rural electrification,
had been unable to make the
coveted trip. Before 1940 North
Carolina boys had never even
been allowed to go to Chicago
with the girls. And girls, for the
first time that year, attended
the National Dairy Show. A
team demonstration in dairy
foods had been added to the cus-
tomary production demonstra-
tion for the meeting in Harris-
burg, Pennsylvania. Mecklen- Jeffries
burg's Hannah Youngblood and Lena Scholtz made up this first
team; and they placed, as did John and Fred Wagoner, the
dairy production team, in the national blue ribbon group. A
dairy judging team from the state also took part, placing
seventh.

All of these 4-H'ers had won state contests during Short
Course. Some of its other 1940 special features had been the
daily vespers led by Boyce Brooks, Honor Club charter member
now a Baptist minister, and the dress revue directed by Jane
Alden of Chicago. She had been a 4-H club girl in Iowa. In
another special event Thad Eure administered a citizenship
pledge to about 30 boys and girls who would soon reach voting
age. This ceremony was the finale of a program sponsored by
Anson County. It had featured, in addition to the Secretary of
State, a patriotic speech by Salom Rizk.

Not civics but general forestry had been the focus of that
summer's camping at Millstone, Swannanoa, and White Lake.
Each site was fully staffed, and in May, before the season
began, these camps and another facility in the east had been
used as leader training schools. In a meeting at Millstone, the
Older Youth Conference had changed its name to Older Rural
Youth. These varied efforts at clear identity and preparation
were reflected in the State Fair's 4-H slogan for 1940: "The Best
National Defense for Farm People is to Grow the Necessary

203

Foods for Family Health— 4-H Club Members Do Their Part."
Dare County members won the first prize of $650 in the county
progress department.

1941 statewide events continued this trend. Almost a thou-
sand boys and girls came to Raleigh for Short Course. There
would not be another one until 1946. The camps placed more
emphasis than ever before on patriotic episodes like raising and
lowering the flag. Since the previous October Dean Schaub had
been the chairman of the national Extension committee on
citizenship for both rural youth and adults. It is fitting, there-
fore, that at the 1941 State Fair the Anson County citizenship
ceremonial staged at the previous year's Short Course was en-
hanced and produced in the grandstands as an American rally.
In November a record 21 delegates from North Carolina at-
tended the 20th National 4-H Congress. By the time they got
home, America was actually in the war. Macon County's Emma
Lou Hurst, the Queen of Health, had been sent to Chicago by
her district's sale of an original recipe book. People pulled to-
gether and 4-H'ers pulled too; but it would be a mistake to see
everything in terms of the military demands.

Back in 1939 the Woman's College Collegiate 4-H Club

Johnston County's Ralph Phillips in his prizewinning acre of cotton.
Edmund Aycock was his 4-H agent in 1941.

204

advised by Agnes Coxe had invited a group of young men from
State College to a party in Greensboro. The guys went; then on
April Fools evening, 1940, about 16 4-H'ers at State met in the
college cafeteria with Mr. Harrill. After supper they formed
their own group, the N. C. State College Supper Club, and
elected officers. That spring they met every Monday evening at
meal time. Charles McAdams, later ordained as a Methodist
minister, served as their first president. Harold Sharpe assumed
this office the following September. It was he who in February
1941 led this group, now numbering 37, in hosting the Georgia-
Carolinas Federation of Collegiate 4-H Clubs in Raleigh. Plans
were made for the annual interstate college 4-H meeting at
Camp Long, South Carolina, scheduled for Easter. Among the
nine Supper Club members going to Camp Long was Walton
Thompson, now reporter of the Supper Club. He was elected
second vice president of the Federation. Miss Gertrude Warren
came from Washington to address these outstanding college
campers whose business sessions were presided over by Jones
County native and Honor Club member Dorothy Banks of the
club at W. C.

While trading socials with the Greensboro women became a
regular activity with the young men in west Raleigh, the Supper

W ^i^-W

The decade of WWII was also the time to "Feed the Leader"
watermelon. Enjoying Mr. Harrill's bite are Miss MacGregor, Miss
Current, Abner Knowles, and a gallery of club members.

205

The christening of the USS Tyrrell by 4-H members and staff.

Club maintained, in fact, four objectives: to foster fellowship, to
promote leadership, to exhibit citizenship, and to acquaint club
members with Extension work and workers. Similar groups, all
after the W. C. model, had appeared at East Carolina Teachers
College, A&T, and one other Negro college. None of these clubs
was more active in support of 4-H than the Supper Club until, in
1944, it was disbanded by the enlistment of its remaining
membership in the Army and Navy.

In July and August of that year, two warships North Caro-
lina 4-H had helped to finance and name went down the ways.
The U.S.S. Tyrrell, a cargo-attack vessel, was christened July 10
at the port of Wilmington by Juanita Ogburn, president of the
Cleveland 4-H Club in Johnston County. A hundred club mem-
bers and adults from her community as well as from Tyrrell and
New Hanover counties were there as the 168th ship completed
by the Wilmington Shipbuilding Company joined the fleet.
Named for the coastal plain county, the ship was christened by
the Johnston County native because her club had won first
place in the 1943 state "Feed a Fighter" contest. This vital

206

national campaign challenged individual 4-H'ers to produce
enough food to sustain a soldier for a year. President Roosevelt
endorsed the national program, and club members who suc-
ceeded in it here were taken to Fort Bragg in recognition of their
accomplishment. The second ship Tar Heel 4-H launched was
named the U.S.S. Cassias Hudson to honor the former agent
whose widow and daughter christened the FF vessel on August
29 at the Brunswick Ship Yards in Georgia.

The evolution of the "Feed a Fighter" program which led to
these contributons to the war is an unprecedented chronicle in
club growth and high 4-H morale. Mr. Harrill had introduced
the mobilization in March 1943. Before the war ended over two
years later, 4-H membership rolls and the supply of food had
been increased astonishingly. As one way of dealing with the
surplus in commodities, a frozen foods project was begun. Paul
Wagoner of Guilford was the first winner in 1945. By then the
total 4-H population of the state was about 30,000 boys and girls
greater than it had been in 1942.

Since 1940, in fact, Extension had touted home gardens as
splendid defense preparations. Home Demonstration women

Hudson family members stand on the christening platform in
Brunswick, Georgia. Brother-in-law W. Kerr Scott stands in the rear.
Commissioner of Agriculture and a former club agent, he later serv-
ed as Governor and United States Senator.

207

and club girls in 1942 studied the theme of "Thrift and -Health
for Better Living." They also joined the men and boys in plac-
ing a new emphasis on meat animal production. At that time
the rallying idea was simply "Food for Victory." A contest
announced in February offered over $800 in defense bonds from
Chilean Nitrate as prizes. Hugh Oliver of Sampson was named
winner and received ten $25 bonds. The War Time Food Pro-
duction Contest sponsored by NJVGA gave its state cash prizes
in 1942 to Raymond Woodard of Durham and George Wilder of
Nash. The first Victory Pig Clubs were organized privately in
Orange County, and by July 1943 pig chains in the Greensboro-
High Point area nearby were being developed with money and
initial stock supplied by Sears, Roebuck, and Co. A drive to pro-
duce one million extra pounds of 4-H poultry had been an-
nounced the previous February. In April the Plant Food Insti-
tute of North Carolina and Virginia offered six one-year scholar-
ships to the boys and girls with the best 4-H records in garden-
ing, corn, Irish and sweet potatoes, as well as tobacco and
cotton. Thus in 1943 Mr. Harrill captured youthful energy and
imagination that already were stimulated and supported in
launching the "Feed a Fighter" campaign.

These new forms of recognition temporarily replaced such
honors for the most outstanding 4-H'ers as being a delegate to
National Camp and gaining membership in the 4-H Honor
Club. There were fev/ regular camps between 1942 and 1945.
Since the short courses in Raleigh were cancelled too, no one
was initiated into Honor Club during the war. National Con-
gress was continued, although the North Carolina delegations
were smaller than in 1941. The 1942 group included two boys
and eight girls. One of them, Laura Louise Lucas, was named
national clothing winner. 1943's delegation of eight included
three national winners: in food preparation, dairy production,
and clothing again. Since the year before, 4-H champions in
dairy production as well as dairy foods had received trips to
Chicago instead of the National Dairy show. No National Con-
gress figures for North Carolina are available for 1944 and
1945.

Military usage of Millstone and Swannanoa plus a polio
scare in 1944 explain the camping interruptions. The summer of
1943 F. N. Shearouse did operate Millstone briefly, and in June
at Gardner-Webb College in his native Cleveland County, Mr.
Harrill held a district short course. O. Max Gardner spoke to the

208

Posters and charts have been popular and successful promotions for
4-H objectives, including the victory campaigns of the 1940s. These
Mecklenburg boys and girls are promoting health, nutrition, and home
gardening.

4'H'ers who came. This event was a forerunner of the district
activity days that came into their own after the war. The first
boys and girls to use Millstone again under club flags were 4-H
officers who camped August 7-10, 1945. But no announcement
during these several years of hard work, scant play, and re-
stricted recognition is more thrilling than Wilton Ward's news.
He learned that he had won the NJVGA Irish potato contest as
well as the state and national 4-H canning competition.

The surge in black and white club rolls brought on by the
objectives and incentives of the "Feed a Fighter" program had
received its biggest boost by the origination in 1942 of National
4-H Mobilization Week, April 5-11, and National 4-H Achieve-
ment Week, November 6-11. Rallying at planting and again at
harvest time is a clear strategy. It worked and kept on working,
as the table's statistical summary of N. C. club enrollment
shows.

Between 1942 and 1945, the 4-H enrollment increased for
blacks and whites from 63,473 to 93,119. The 1943 increase
along is almost 28,000 4-H'ers. In 1937, just six years before,
there had been only about 44,000 members in the entire state.
The rate of project completion is equally impressive; in 1937
that figure stood at 65.1 percent. In 1943 it reached 72.6 percent
and the next year hit its zenith at 74.7 percent.

209

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210

In this matter more Negro members completed their work
than their white counterparts, and the rate of increase in club
membership among blacks was well ahead of recruitment of
new white 4-H'ers. No state in the nation could boast of a better
4-H program for Negroes in 1943 and 1944. There were, of
course, clubs for blacks in less than half of North Carolina's 100
counties because of the concentration of the rural Negro popula-
tion. Of the 93,119 members tallied for 1944, 28,861 were black.
The 1945 total enrollment of just 91,573 shows the white member-
ship dropping off about 2,000 but the black membership still
climbing by almost 500.

This generation of Tar Heel 4-H'ers who attended no state
short courses in either Greensboro or Raleigh and which, if any
organized club camping was involved, camped very little, was
larger than any previous generation and had grown faster with
the best ever sustained records of project completion.

Victory and feeding fighters did not consume all of the club
schedule, however. New state and national programs in safety
were started in 1943. In a related matter, 4-H forest patrols,
more than 100 of them, were formed to protect timberlands.
Conservation of natural resources besides food was active, and
new contests including talks about the subject were put in place.
The East Lake fire patrol in Dare County received in early 1943

Rowan County's 36 Negro 4-H council officers assembled for a leader-
ship session in April 1940. Their efforts paid off at home and abroad.

211

Another ambulance for the service-North Carolina 4-H president
Frances Banks of Pasquotank presents the keys to the US Surgeon
General as Mr. Harrill and other officers look on.

a certificate of merit from CBS's series called "Youth on
Parade." Jane Withers starred in a new movie about 4-H; called
Young America it was shown about the state. War bonds were
used widely as awards, and other reminders of the times show
that members purchased bonds worth $267,500 with their pro-
ject proceeds and sold another $194,000 worth of bonds and
stamps.

As early as 1941 the club program had included a scrap
metal drive. Its objectives were beautification and safety
besides thrift. EFN for March 1942 carried the account of two
Columbus County boys who drove their mule and wagon eight
miles to deliver 800 pounds of junk in cold weather. Old phono-
graph records were even more collectable by youth. The funds
from both salvage drives were earmarked by clubs for purchas-
ing two military ambulances, one at the national and another
at the state level. In October 1942 Nash County clubs submitted
the first North Carolina contribution toward the purchase of a
Red Cross ambulance in a national collective action in which
each state paid $50. The second vehicle, at a cost of over $1,700,
was readily obtained by this state's members alone. In Washing-
ton on July 3, 1943 the Surgeon General of the U. S. Army
received the ambulance keys from State 4-H President Frances

212

Banks of Pasquotank. She acted in behalf of both Negro and
white boys and girls. It was later, in July 1945, that club girls
made a quilt of 4-H colors and sent it to a military hospital in
England. These quilters were from Johnston County.

The particular success of the white girls in this county dur-
ing World War II must have been due in great measure to the
leadership of Ruby Pearson, an agent who had grown up in
Apex in Wake County and graduated from Meredith College.
On July 1, 1945, as club members were engaged in a campaign
to raise funds for polio victims. Miss Pearson replaced Frances
MacGregor as Assistant State 4-H Leader. Mr. Harrill's as-
sistant since 1937 had resigned in January in order to marry
John Wall of Anson County. Agent Margaret Clark moved over
to Johnston to succeed the new Assistant 4-H leader. A couple
of months after Pearson joined Mr. Harrill, W. Ned Wood of Ala-
mance with Extension experience in Stanly, Iredell, and Rowan
plus several years in Army intelligence was hired as Mr. Har-
rill's first male assistant in a capacity more official than Dan
Holler's. Wood had graduated from State in 1933 and would
later do graduate work at Columbia. Negro staff expansion also
took place. On July 1, 1943 P. P. Thompson went to work as a
special 4-H agent in Robeson County to direct increasing enroll-

lli
III

These hands and others stitched this blanket in Johnston County and
sent it to a military hospital in Great Britain.

213

Wood

Pearson

ment there. This development followed the selection of John
Mitchell as the Upper South's Field Agent in Negro Extension
Work. His leaving the Greensboro staff of A&T elevated Mr.
Jones to the position of State Agent for Negro work, including
his old job as Negro club leader. That same action moved Jeff-
ries, associate of the Alamance Scotts, into the position of As-
sistant Negro State Agent and livestock specialist. His place as
district agent for Negroes was taken by Otis Buffaloe. It was
two years later, mid-September 1945, when W. C. "Bill" Cooper,
also of Alamance, was hired by Mr. Harrill as State 4-H Spe-
cialist at A&T. His job of assisting R. E. Jones was actually to
coordinate and lead the Negro 4-H program in 43 counties with
an enrollment of about 30,000. At the end of his first week on
the job, the first statewide Junior Dairy Show for Negro 4-H'ers
took place in Greensboro. In the show sponsored by N. C. Mu-
tual Insurance Company of Durham, 137 animals were regis-
tered.

Capable Bill Cooper, a 1939 graduate of Hampton Institute,
came to Greensboro after two years of being the Negro agent in
Anson, where the Redfern brand of youth work among white
4-H'ers had impressed him and shaped his vision of future
farming and homemaking among black boys and girls. Before
working in Mrs. Redfern's fertile footsteps, Mr. Cooper had
worked briefly in Halifax County, not in Extension; there his

214

Cooper

boss was one of Mrs. Redfern's
brothers, a McClendon. No
formal schooling could have
matched this training for de-
manding duty on the state
level.

Several other events in
Negro club history date from
earlier in the WWII decade of
growth and show the ability of
the black staff to carry on in
difficult but proud times with
limited personnel. In 1942, for
example, more than 300 mem-
bers and agents attended five
organized camps in the pied-
mont and coastal plain. Eating
habits, special war foods, feed
and fiber, citizenship, first aid, and care of clothing were dis-
cussed in these groups assembled between July 20 and August
2. A larger Wildlife Camp than ever staged for black conserva-
tionists before was held later in August. In September of that
year Lathan Wallace of Craven County, the original work place
of Mr. Jones, was awarded a one-year scholarship to A&T as
the state's best black 4-H boy. In his county and elsewhere pig
chains were growing in response to the war's call for food. Fed-
eral Cartridge responded to the evidence of conservation by
enlarging its financial support among white as well as black
club members. Joining this effort in 1944 and 1945 were Fire-
stone Tire and Rubber and the N. C. Bankers Association.

Mobilization initiatives made 1945 a banner year for baby
beef production, Ashe County members held the state's first
lamb show, and Polk's 4-H'ers established the links of the
nation's first dairy chain. Yet two other events give this year its
most lasting 4-H significance.

Early in 1945 Sears gave $300 for the purchase of baby
chicks for 10 boys and girls in 14 counties. This 4-H Pullet
Chain conceived by Poultry Extension specialist C. F. "Chick"
Parrish and funded by Sears' Atlanta Personnel Manager
Clyde Greenway in just a few years spread to nearly every
county in the state as well as into other southern states. Its suc-
cess attracted additional sponsors, but the other name of this

215

A Wake County 4-H pullet sale with Chick Parrish himself as
auctioneer.

late war effort to grow better pullets remained the Sears Pullet
Chain. It soon convinced club members and their parents of the
utility of commercial as opposed to backyard flocks of bred-to-
lay sexed pullets. Allen Oliver's great days had been scratched
away; better housing, feeding, breeding, and management were
the lessons of both Parrish and his colleague Tom Morris, who,
once the program flew, prepared and sent a monthly newsletter
to participating youth.

Here are the first links in this chain that has grown beyond
measure. The money from Sears supplied each club boy or girl
in the program with 100 chicks. At the end of 6 months, the
4-H'er brought 12 pullets to a local or county poultry show and
sale. The birds were judged; and blue, red, or white ribbons were
assigned in addition to $100 in prize money which Sears
granted to each county. The proceeds from the sale of each 4-
H'er's dozen pullets went into a county fund for the purchase of
new chicks with which the chain could be extended the next
year. With the layers remaining in each participant's flock
being for the family's use, the program allowed members to
market eggs and store up money for college or some other
worthy goal. Gradually the state was being turned into a com-
mercial egg producer. In recognition of this pattern of club and
economic well-being, a marker should be placed on the site of
the O'Henry Hotel in Greensboro where in 1945 "Chick" Par-
rish and Clyde Greenway came to their far-reaching agreement.

The other benchmark of the year World War II ended is the

216

designation of March 3-11, 1945, as National 4-H Club Week.
This name replaced the various mobilizing weeks named earlier
in the decade and carried national and club operations into the
return of peace. In a letter the Governor of North Carolina
addressed the state's membership on this occasion:

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA

GOVERNOR'S OFFICE

RALEIGH

R. GREGG CHERRY February 22, 1945

Governor

TO THE 4-H MEMBERS OF NORTH CAROLINA:
In observance of National 4-H Club Week I would like
to extend greetings and best wishes to the 93,000
members of the 4-H Club in North Carolina. You, as
an organization and as individuals, have an im-
portant part in shaping the agricultural life of our
state. During the coming year you have as your im-
mediate objective, security on the home front and
victory on the battlefront.

The men of our fighting forces are giving all of their
strength and vitality to defend the freedom and con-
tinued existence of this country. North Carolina is
proud of the display of courage, physical strength,
ingenuity and bravery of her men in the armed serv-
ice. They are fighting a great war looking toward a
great victory. They will be able to continue this
supreme effort for victory just so long as those of us
here at home do an equally good job on the home
front.

During National 4-H Club Week you will rededicate
yourselves to the task ahead with special emphasis on
food production, health, farm safety, and conserva-
tion. The food you produce will help to speed the day
of victory and your training in leadership will help
assure a just and lasting peace. Put forth your best
efforts; encourage other boys and girls to join the 4-H
Club. Work hard to make 1945 the year of Victory.

Sincerely yours.

R. Gregg Cherry

2YI

Mr. Harrill liked both the concept and the name of "Club
Week," and with the war's end bringing the prospect of a
resumption of short courses in the summers he pondered and
finally decided to rename his annual gathering North Carolina
4-H Club Week. His success in 1946, both in terms of the turnout
and the distinct cast of the program, brought praise from EFN.

The first state-wide, 4-H club meeting since before the
war broke all attendance records with 1,294 boys and
girls taking part in conferences, study, demonstra-
tions, and recreation.

For most of the young people this was their first trip
to 4-H Club Week at State College but they acquitted
themselves like veterans. Director Schaub said that
this was due to the excellent training and leadership
which was given them in local meetings during the
war years.

The theme of club week was "Living to Preserve
World Peace." In speaking to 4-H club members about
their ideals for the future, State Leader Harrill said:
"It is our responsibility to maintain a democracy
where men can live in peace together; a land where
every man will consider himself his brother's keeper.
With these facts in mind, let us fashion a 4-H program
which will help attain this goal."

The 4-H discussion periods, led by Dr. Erwin H. Shinn
of Washington, field agent of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, was one of the highlights of the week, as

\x£^^

Negro 4-H'ers hold their first statewide dairy show, September 1945,
in Greensboro.

218

were the dairy production and dairy food demonstra-
tions.

Speakers

There were addresses by Senator Clyde R. Hoey, Gov-
ernor R. Gregg Cherry, Dr. Clyde Irwin, and other
outstanding speakers.

Extension specialists, both men and women, were
constantly on the job and helped to make the
fourteenth annual 4-H meeting one which will go
down in history as just about the best. Too much
credit cannot be given the agents and their assistants,
who managed everything admirably. The boys and
girls were divided into fifty groups and this greatly
facilitated the handling of so great a number of vi-
vacious young people.

Recreation was made a big part of 4-H week and this
feature of the program was conducted by Miss Jane
Farwell of New York City, recreation specialist of the
National Recreation Association of America.
There was a trip to the State Capitol, the Governor's
Mansion, and visits to the various departments of the
college in a tour of the campus. Everyone said that
they were sorry when the week was over.

Jane S. McKimmon had on July 1 quietly passed from her
position in Extension administration into full retirement. Her
era was ending as the new world order was being designed and
shaped in the United Nations. Her telling image merited study
by these assembled boys and girls.

Also registered for this historic event were 25 local leaders.
Their presence, in addition to the 114 farm and home agents
who attended, suggests that the decade of the 1940s was also a
period of growth in North Carolina's volunteer 4-H leader pro-
gram. It is very apparent, for instance, that on the coast and in
the mountains, two areas where 4-H camps were entirely miss-
ing or very worn and cramped, as at Swannanoa, leaders took
matters into their hands as soon as the war ended. Dare County
officials accepted the Naval Air Station on Roanoke Island
from the Federal Government in 1946, and leaders of 4-H in the
community were instrumental in getting Extension to provide a
club camping program on the site as soon after acquisition as
possible. Dare County commissioners would fund the main-

219

Store windows exhibiting 4-H slogans and projects got a boost from
the publicity surrounding the first National 4-H Club Week.

tenance budget. In Macon County the news that a new camp in
the west was possible had drawn money into 4-H coffers in a
hurry, as the following item from the August 1946 EFN sug-
gests.

MACON COUNTY 4-H TOPS GOAL OF $700
Money Raised by Several Methods

The 640 members of the 4-H clubs of Macon County
topped their goal of $700 for the 4-H camp at the
Mountain Experiment Station, Waynesville, and also
provided a good reserve for their cabin there. They
donated and raised a total of $777.88 by means of box-
suppers, cake-walks, radio shows, sale of gift cards,
rummage sale, a play, a movie, and a luncheon.
In winding up the campaign, a lunch was served to
the Farmers Federation with 4-H members from all
parts of the county assisting.

Mrs. Robert Parrish, a neighborhood leader from Burn-
ingtown, put her club of 23 members far out in front
by being the first club in the county to achieve its
goal. The Holley Springs club established a record of
donations per individual club member with $1.70. Cartoo-
gechaye was second with $1.38 per member.
Total receipts from all the clubs was $686.30 and then

220

the Farmers Federation picnic brought in $91.58 for a
grand total of $777.88.

For those who wish to refresh their geography, Macon
County is in the mountain section, almost in the
southwestern corner of North Carolina and on the
South Carolina line.

The role of neighborhood leaders in these two instances
brings to mind the philosophy of R. E. Jones on this important
topic. His intial work with the Negro boys and girls in Craven
County clubs began in the summer when public schools were
not in session. This mid-1930s experience gave his work there a
bias toward community organization and home visitation by
the 4-H agent. The most supportive parents became his local
leaders and resources, even though, when schools were in ses-
sion, the seven or eight Craven clubs met there with leaders and
agents. Jones did not lose his appreciation for the community
and summertime approach to 4-H after his county success ele-
vated him to administration in Greensboro.

A perception of the public school's big role in the state 4-H
mission over many years did not keep Mr. Harrill from seeing
the numerous demands for local adults. He knew that year-

Lyman Dixon and Mr. Harrill admire the new sign for the new camp
on the coast after WWII. Dixon directed Roanoke Island as a part of
his duties as District 4-H Agent.

221

round and personal contacts with the huge 4-H membership
which public school enrollments and the war mobilization had
enlisted were vital. A variety of indicators pointed to the State
4-H Leader's determination to enhance the roles of volunteers
and organize them for training across the state in the early
1940s. There had been three camp sessions in the first year of
the decade for training leaders. He saw the Older Rural Youth
as a supply of valuable experience and will. The series of camp
conferences for agents in August 1942 at Millstone, Beaufort's
Camp Leach, Swannanoa, White Lake, and Vade Mecum in
Stokes had stressed the Neighborhood Leader System in view of
food production in the military econom.y. According to a report
by Fred Sloan in EFN for that same month, there were 27,281
Good Neighbors in leadership roles in the state's 6,013 farming
communities. How many of these adults were engaged in 4-H
leadership is unclear, but in 1938 volunteers were already giv-
ing up to 5,000 days to the state's 4-H activities. EFN in June
1942 had praised the Neighborhood Leader Plan as carried out
in Lee and Orange where agents had trained the volunteers. No
agent on any level was more active in this effort than Paul
Leagans, who in the fall of 1943 went to Washington for six
months to assist federal agents in developing a Neighborhood
Leader Program like North Carolina's.

F. A. Jones, the Negro agent in Beaufort, thought a club
newspaper would advance the cause; he brought out a monthly
called 4-H Club News. Mr. Harrill used Millstone in September
1945 for the first large training session of the State 4-H Neigh-
borhood Leaders' Association. To demonstrate the quality of
service volunteers in the 4-H process, Mr. 4-H peeled the pota-
toes for one of the group's meals. At the annual Extension Con-
ference that November the role of leaders was stressed by
USDA's H. H. WilHamson when he talked on "The Future of
4-H Club Work."

Harrill's own publication entitled "4-H Club Leaders Hand-
book" (a 1931 title revived) was more ambitious, attractive, and
detailed than any other instructive matter ever issued by the
State 4-H Leader. It came out in the early spring of 1946 and
specified that each club should have one or more local leaders
and that club members should be given a part in the selection of
these adults. Durable information filled 24 pages with a format
suggestive of Harrill's 1936 recreation bulletin. The cover fea-
tured two of the state's delegates to 1940's National Camp,
Rudolph Ellis of Cumberland and Margaret Ellis of Durham.

222

The overall tone of the booklet is suggested by the "Forward":

In shaping the policies of the new world order youth
is asked to assume new responsibilities, undertake
bigger tasks and to do more with less. In the days
ahead, rural youth will face the temptations of high
city wages, modern inventions, and conveniences.
Their thinking will determine the course of our na-
tion. In facing these challenges youth will need the
stamina, integrity, and clear vision that comes from
experiences of rural life at its best. Likewise, they will
need the guidance of adults with a sympathetic under-
standing of the problems and opportunities of young
people.

To guide this great sector of our population and to
help youth more effectively make the needed adjust-
ments is a great and challenging task for the Ex-
tension worker and the Neighborhood 4-H Leaders. It
is not enough that the 4-H program give information
and training in better practices in Agriculture and
Homemaking. It must provide for the production of
economic wealth, health improvement, citizenship train-
ing, cooperation, and recreation — in a broader sense,
4-H Club work must train youth in the art of living.

World War I's growth experience for club administration had
led to similar statements. They can be found in "Suggested
Community Club Programs" of 1919 and Homer Mask's 1920
annual report, as well as in the 1931 handbook.

As Mr. Harrill's new leader handbook made itself useful,
Jesse Giles in Catawba tried to take the initiative in establish-
ing a county 4-H foundation, starting with a $1,000 grant from
the Conover Citizens Bank. Six counties involved in Negro 4-H
work placed exhibits about club-community spirit at the 1946
State Fair; no record of prior exhibits there by blacks exists.
The counties were Halifax, Johnston, Hertford, Guilford,
Orange, and Robeson. Early in 1947 Oland Peele of Wayne
County, a product of one of white North Carolina's leading 4-H
families, was elected president of the State 4-H Neighborhood
Leaders' Association. That April, leaders and 170 club members
from 16 counties took part in recreation institutes led in States-
ville and Smithfield by Jane Farwell, who had also represented
the National Recreation Association at State Club Week the
year before. The 1947 Club Week showed the results of the

223

nVfVfi^f .

1947 A&T Short Course scenes: project winners and the first-place team
demonstrators.

224

year's emphasis of leadership and recreation. Another highlight
of the week was the appearance of Secretary of War Kenneth C.
Royall, like Mr. Peele, a native of Wayne County.

By the camping season of 1947, the Dare County site had
become Roanoke Island 4-H Camp and was in full service, as
were the older camps now fully furloughed from military duty
and restored. This is the 1947 camping schedule for white
4-H'ers:

Millstone Camp

June 2-6
June 9-13
June 13-17
June 17-21
June 23-27
June 27-July 1
July 1-5
July 7-11
July 15-19
July 21-25
July 25-29
Aug. 4-9
Aug. 4-9
Aug. 11-16
Aug. 25-30

Sampson

Montgomery, Harnett, Moore

Hoke, Scotland

Person, Granville

Mecklenburg, Lee

Durham, Rockingham

Union, Randolph

Cabarrus, Lincoln, Ashe

Davie, Rowan

Iredell, Stanly

Anson, New Hanover

Wildlife Conference

Davidson, Alexander

Columbus

Robeson, Richmond

Swannanoa Camp

June 30-July 5
July 7-12
July 14-19
July 21-26
July 28-Aug. 2
Aug. 4-9

White Lake Camp

June 9-14
June 16-21
June 23-28
June 30-July 5
July 7-12
July 14-19
July 21-26
July 28-Aug. 2
Aug. 4-9

Haywood, Henderson

Yancey, Madison, Mitchell

Cherokee, Clay, Avery

Buncombe

Jackson, Macon, Swain

Transylvania, Polk, Graham

>

Edgecombe

Edgecombe

Wayne

Sampson

Haywood

Halifax

Northampton

Columbus

Pender

225

Aug. 11-16
Aug. 18-23
Aug. 25-30

Roanoke Island

June 2-7
June 9-14
June 16-21
June 23-28
June 30-July 5
July 7-12
July 9
July 14-19
July 21-26
Aug. 4-9
Aug. 11-16
Aug. 18-23

Onslow, Carteret

Cumberland

Bladen

Camp

Bertie, Martin
Wayne, Johnston
Pitt, Wilson, Dare
Warren, Alleghany
Hertford, Gates, Wake
Orange, Franklin, Yadkin
(Surry 4-H for one day)
Tyrrell, Pasquotank, Camden
Hyde, Currituck
Beaufort, Washington
Duplin, Craven, Jones
Lenoir

Such a busy schedule suggests the availability of 4-H'ers
everywhere, and the statistics say the same thing. In 1946 the
state membership had reached 95,483; of that number a record
27 went to Chicago, and four came home national winners. In
1947 for the first time the register passed 100,000 and came to

^>|Bl«i,

^ ix

Tractor Maintenance Leader School.

226

rest at 105,585. In this membership 72.1 percent completed pro-
jects. The postwar years' sustaining of the earher years' growth
is further illustrated in this tabulation:

Summary of Projects Completed — 1947

Project

Total Members
Completing

Units

Corn

Peanuts

Soil Conservation

Potatoes (Irish and Sweet) ....

Cotton

Tobacco

Other Crop Projects

Home Gardens

Poultry (Turkeys also)

Dairy Cattle

Beet Cattle

Sheep

Swine

Other Livestock

Home Grounds Beautification

Forestry

Wildlife Conservation

Food Preparation

Food Preservation and Frozen

Foods

Health

Clothing

6,812 9085.1 acres

630 843.4 acres

108 1526.0 acres

1,879 1210.8 acres

802 1008.0 acres

2,318 2063.0 acres

1,363 1422.9 acres

14,899 5685.4 acres

6,445 543,011 birds

3,439 4351 animals

1,332 1589 animals

119 414 animals

7,222 14,114 animals

117 670animals

2,812
446 171,100 acres

1,293

17,230 410,609 meals planned

474,984 meals served

Room Improvement

Market Gardens

Arts and Crafts

Junior Leadership

Home Management

Ag. Engineering and Electricity

Child Care

All Other Projects

14,633
18,909
21,491

7,494

996
1,085
1,016
3.739
291
832
1,272

980,800 quarts

83,995 garments made

., 43,068 garments remodeled

7264 rooms

17,475 articles

589.6 acres

3904 articles

4107 units

Total Completions 141,046

The names of projects and activities in the left column are as
interesting as the figures in the right. In 1940 North Carolina
had been one of 19 states enrolled in all 12 national 4-H con-
tests. During the decade the growth in the state's list, of course,
outdid the nation's, but both lists grew. The membership boom

227

M'fxnc toh',-M,.f

Electric Congress banquets came out of the late 40s into the 4-H
present.

in North Carolina suggested that whatever leads to numerical
growth in an organization also causes an expansion of group
interests. Hidden in the table's "Ag. Engineering and Electri-
city," for example, are parts of the new state and national
safety project that had been the subject of a bulletin in early
1946. Then, also, the first Tractor Maintenance Schools in
North Carolina were being held. The arrival of power farming
in the state, noted Specialist J. C. Ferguson, made the basics of
agricultural enginering a necessity for farm men and boys. He
in particular used adult leaders for the circulation of this informa-
tion, his first effort in Charlotte on January 22-24, 1946 to teach
tractor maintenance to boys seeming both unsafe and ineffi-
cient. This slight adjustment only enhanced a program of the
greatest instructional utility which in time produced contests
and awards provided by American Oil Company. As for elec-
tricity, it had joined 4-H with the dawning of rural electri-
fication in the mid-1930s. Yet not until after World War H did
power lines and plants range the state, and not until 1947 did a
Better Methods 4-H Electric Congress convene in North Caro-
lina. It was held in Raleigh, October 27-28. A boy and girl from
the 44 counties served by the sponsoring utilities, Carolina
Power and Light and Virginia Electric and Power Company,
were registered. They had been selected on the basis of records
in electric projects already underway. Also sponsoring the event
was the Westinghouse Foundation. When Duke and Nantahala

228

IFYE delegates always live as a member of host families.
N. C.'s Pollyanna McDonald harvested grapes in France in 1955
alongside her adopted brother.

Power and Light joined the other sponsors, the entire 4-H
population of the state was offered the chance to compete for
the two annual Electric Congress trips in each county. Another
development in 4-H projects due both to plentiful food and the
delivery of better and safer technology was the junior canning
program. It was in 1947, too, that Savannah Sugar Refining
Corporation became its sponsor. The apt national 4-H slogan
for 1947 was "Working Together for a Better Home and World
Community."

Planning long since underway meant that 1948 would be
the first year of operation for the International Farm Youth

229

Exchange Program. From the beginning it had the bold objec-
tive of creating a positive, productive education for American
and foreign rural youth in the fields of agriculture and interna-
tional relations. North Carolina began at the beginning. The
state with The Lost Colony sent its first IFYE that first year to
England. He was William Shackelford of Wayne County. The
first foreign youth to visit farm families here under this pro-
gram came, also in 1948, from France. He was Roger DeLorme.
Shackleford was one of 22 Americans who began the program.
In less than a decade that many 4-H'ers from North Carolina
had been an IFYE.

The pursuit of better living in a better world was hampered
at home in 1948, however, by a forbidding epidemic of polio, the
second of the decade, this one centered in Greensboro. The
camps were out of operation by July. Club Week was canceled.

Much of the credit for the success of 4-H during times like
these belongs to Mr. Harrill's weekly WPTF radio show. He
used it masterfully: to get boys and girls on the air, to spread
important information and instruction, to interview well known
people, and, most acutely, to motivate 4-H'ers when they were
downcast. With polio about and no Club Week in view, on July
31, 1948 Mr. 4-H spent all 15 minutes detailing the prizes that
could be won in the various state and national 4-H contests. A
national winner's scholarship, for instance, was then valued at
$200.00. The number of national contests had almost doubled
since the year before Pearl Harbor; there were 22 programs de-
scribed over the air: Poultry Prodution, Better Methods Electric,
Canning, Clothing, Dairy Production, Meat Animal, Soil Con-
servation, Field Crops, Dress Revue, Farm Safety, Food Produc-
tion, Garden, Girl's Record, Health Improvement, Home
Grounds Beautification, Home Improvement, Tractor Mainte-
nance, Achievement, Leadership, Dairy Foods Demonstration,
and two just added in 1948 — Forestry plus Recreation and Rural
Arts.

That same summer outstanding Negro 4-H'ers had been
selected to attend the first Regional 4-H Camp for Negro Youth
at Southern University in Baton Rouge. The purpose of this
camp was to give black boys and girls some form of recognition
beyond the state level. But the polio scare kept Gwendolyn Har-
ris, Susan Moore, Rufus Kelly, Henry Simpson, Norman
Strowd, and Geraldine Jones at home, too. In 1949 they were
offered the trip, with that year's winners, to the second Re-

230

gional Camp at Tennessee A&I in Nashville. The Short Course
held in Greensboro that summer honored all of these winning
youth among the 500 who attended. The entire group's picture
in EFN for August shows how popular the 4-H uniform had
become among these young people. The 1949 Club Week in
Raleigh had seen a rededication of Honor Club to its service
missions. The interruption of short courses by war and then of a
Club Week by polio had robbed this organization of both visibil-
ity and new members. But about 30 of the 400 4-H'ers tapped
into Honor Club since 1931 responded to Mr. Harrill's call for a
weekend conference at Millstone; there an unbroken tradition of
early-summer preliminaries to the July initiation of new mem-
bers in Raleigh was born in 1949. This renewal, as when Honor
Club began, came during staffing adjustments on the state
level.

On November 1, 1949 Idell Jones, later Mrs. Randell, joined
Mr. Cooper on Jones' Greensboro 4-H staff. Her position was
new; no woman had been assigned on the state level to Negro
4-H'ers before. Like Mrs. McKimmon, Mrs. Lowe had always
had a dual responsibility. There had already been several more
changes in Mr. Harrill's growing staff. In July 1946 Eleanor
Barber and Jesse James had been hired as Assistant State 4-H
Leaders. She had been an agent in Warren County and was
replacing Ruby Pearson who, after a year with Mr. Harrill, was
resigning to marry Robert Uzzle. James took the place Ned
Wood vacated by going on study leave. Both Barber and James
aided in reestablishing Millstone and took part in the first 4-H
Club Week. In mid-1947 Wood returned from New York but soon
moved to another job; this opening was filled by veteran Meck-
lenburg County agent Oscar Phillips, who took a special inter-
est in Swannanoa while James began to operate Manteo, as
conditions allowed, in 1948. Assistant state agents functioning
as camp directors began in this way. Earlier that year Mary
Sue Moser, a successful agent in Davidson, had come on the
state staff and taken an immediate interest, not in a camp, but
in the new IFYE program. In 1949, when Woman's College
again revived its original 4-H Club, Miss Moser was named its
new advisor. In June of that year Miss Barber resigned in prepa-
ration for her September marriage to J. Boyd Davis of Warren-
ton. That summer's Club Week, in addition to the new Honor
Club spirit, communicated with its delegates through "Clover
Leaves." Then without their State Leader or Jesse James — he

231

James

Jones

Moser

Phillips

was looking for a new job — to National Congress that
November went 26 boys and girls; home came a record nine
national winners. Fred Wagoner, already working in Edge-
combe but tapped for a place in Ricks Hall's second floor, went
to Chicago with the delegation, as did Miss Moser.

There was no 1949 national winner like Mr. Harrill, though.
He was international that winter. After WWH whose challenges
he had so finely answered in the voices and muscles of so many
Tar Heel youth, he had been selected by USDA and the War
Department to go to Austria, the land of Adolf Hitler's youth,
and there to offer suggestions and materials for beginning a
program like 4-H as enjoyed at home. Harrill spent 60 success-
ful days on this ironic assignment. His 1946 handbook for lead-
ers was translated for the benefit of Austrian farmers and their
children who would discover if clover could grow in the Alps.

Returning to Raleigh between Thanksgiving and Christ-
mas, Mr. 4-H knew the work he had begun in Europe was like
the program in North Carolina — it would never be finished,
whatever it might grow into. Those Macon County club mem-
bers, for instance, were still waiting for the new 4-H camp in the
western mountains. And the decade of growth ended as it had
begun. Enduring Jimmy Gray was dead. Except for the good-
will of this former agent and assistant director, there never
would have been even the possibility of Camp Millstone which
Harrill and 4-H loved so well. Also, that noble woman who had
come on this staff when Hoffman was only piney woods, Fran-
ces MacGregor Wall, was dead. Her long illness overcame a
nurturing life, reminiscent of that led by Elizabeth Cornelius.

232

The Great 1950s

Financing and construction hurdles meant that the new
camp so long desired in the western mountains and the war-
delayed and expanding William Neal Reynolds Coliseum at
State College both came into 4-H service in 1950. If the camp at
Waynesville had been occupied earlier, the 33-acre facility
might have been named WANOCA in honor of the remote
region whose old and young of 20 counties had largely paid the
bill. But the camp was named Schaub. Not western youth and
leaders but agents in an early summer training session on fro-
zen foods christened the new cabins and hall. The truth is that
I. O. Schaub had served on the eleventh-hour advisory commit-
tee formed to raise the final $35,000 there in 1949. Moreover,
1950 was the Corn Club founder's year to retire as Director of
Extension in North Carolina.

4-H Club Week was moved from venerable Pullen Hall to
the new coliseum, and Swannanoa, after that camping season,
was sent on partial leave for refitting and a new pool. The crude
old one leaked; the divided bathhouse and the male and female
barracks were worse. Military use of this camp had replaced its
original cabins with these housing facilities unsatisfactory for
4-H'ers, and during the early 50s new, self-sufficient cabins
were put up. This first year of the new decade was also the end
of Mr. Harrill's first quarter-century as State Leader, the end of
25 years of organized 4-H in the state. In the huge new campus
arena, that Club Week became a large anniversary celebration.
Assisting with this grand event was a largely new group of
Assistant State Leaders. Since January, Oscar Phillips and
Mary Sue Moser had been associated with Fred Wagoner,
Lyman Dixon, Margaret Clark, and Dan Holler. (He had most
recently been working in cotton production and marketing.)
Because Mr. Phillips was busy at Swannanoa, it fell to Holler to
open Schaub that first season to its 4-H'ers. He had never even
seen the place before the day he arrived to run it. The pantry
and the pool were empty. Holler ordered groceries; but since
work on the pool itself was incomplete, it was necessary that
the campers be ferried by cars to Lake Junaluska for swim-
ming. This tedious charge was lifted from Holler when Charles
Musser, who had played football for State College, arrived to
direct work and play at the new camp.

233

Public Speaking was a new contest at the celebrated 1950
Club Week. Miss Moser managed the competition won by Ire-
dell's Francis Pressly and Louise Simpson from Mecklenburg.
Everyone had a new charge. Fred Wagoner was given the spe-
cial task of collecting, reactivating, and advising the old Supper
Club at State. Thus the Collegiate 4-H Club there was estab-
lished in 1950. It thrived. Dan Holler assumed sponsorship of
the older rural youth groups, now called Young Men and
Women's Organization. Dixon and Miss Clark, who had longer
experience in the counties — he in Northampton and she, most
recently, in Johnston, lost not a stride. With this team of assist-
ants, Mr. Harrill was set for the greatness he saw in 4-H to be
demonstrated to all. With the addition of a new Eastern Dis-
trict, by 1950 there were six in all; each district had its own 4-H
agents in the white program.

Club Week at A&T in 1950 was a special occasion, too. The
rolls of black clubs listed almost 43,000 members. In addition to
honoring Schaub, the delegates and agents assembled remem-
bered the leadership of McKimmon and seven Negro pioneers.
This was the 20th annual gathering and the 35th year of organ-
ized youth work. The week's theme was "Learning to Live in a
Changing World." One of the changes of moment was being
referred to as a new 4-H Foundation. Perhaps the idea had origi-

State 4-H Club Week in 1950, the first Coliseum edition.

234

Mr. Harrill toasts his former assistant Eleanor Barber Davis in front
of the cake commemorating the first 25 years of organized 4-H in North
Carolina.

nated with Mr. Cooper the year before when news spread that a
National 4-H Foundation had been formed to purchase a per-
manent setting for federal club administration and National
Camp. The Negro 4-H Foundation in North Carolina was incor-
porated in Greensboro in October 1950. Its main purpose was
the establishment of a 4-H camp like Schaub in the east for
black boys and girls. Providing awards and the sponsorship of
black IFYE delegates were also aims. In 1951, the same year the
National Foundation dedicated the National 4-H Center, for-
merly Chevy Chase Junior College, the National Committee on
Boys' and Girls' Club Work in Chicago made awards in 17 dif-
ferent programs available for the first time to this state's black
youth as part of a discrete, if later unsatisfactory, plan. The
change met part of the Greensboro group's objective, and in

235

1954, before its foundation reached its financial goal, the first
two Negroes to represent North Carolina in the IFYE program
spent 3 months in the United Kingdom. They were Maxine
Young and Raphael Cuthbertson. The objective of building a
permanent camp for black 4-H'ers remained.

R. E. Jones recalled in a 1959 radio interview with Mr. Har-
rill how the camp dream became a reality. All of the counties
having Negro Extension workers got a total of about 150 local
endorsers of the Foundation in 1950, and solicitation of funds
was organized. In a similar way, every state was asked to help
pay for and maintain the National 4-H Center; white 4-H'ers in
this state, for example, helped decorate and furnish Warren
Hall in addition to providing Bibles for the use of visitors. By
1955 the Greensboro group had raised $37,000, but too little to
build a camp; so that May they undertook a highly visible cam-
paign which brought in an additional $50,000. With nearly
$90,000 the camp's eight original buildings designed by Ray
Ritchie were put in place on a 31-acre tract of leased land at
Hammocks Beach in Onslow County. Named for the first black
man to serve as State Negro Agent in North Carolina, Camp
Mitchell was opened in June 1956. Approximately $70,000 of the
investment had been raised by club members, leaders, and par-
ents. Eventually four other buildings were added with the Founda-
tion's funds.

David S. Weaver, who in 1950 had followed Schaub as
Director of Extension, had been one of the top supporters of the
Negro camp. His fatherhood of rural electrification in North
Carolina, moreover, came to mean that his administration was
a dynamo of progress and development among the farming
people of both races. This tone had been easy to set because of
4-H and its outreach into all areas and ages of citizens. The

Dixon

-\

Holler

Clark

236

guidance of a 4-H agent in each district meant, for instance,
that in October 1952 the state's first District 4-H Recognition
Days succeeded. Early Summer Activity Days had come out of
the 40s. County winners were recognized and district winners
rewarded at these new autumn events. Sampson County's Jack-
son children rose to club prominence with them.

On November 28, 1952, moreover, the first State 4-H Recog-
nition Day was held at the Village Restaurant in Raleigh. It
was a luncheon and not a dinner so that 32 of the 58 state
winners honored could get to Durham in time for the night train
to National Congress in Chicago. Several years later Midway
Airport received the Tar Heel 4-H faithful there. The size of the
delegation making these pilgrimages is related to greatness,
both in quality and in size. For in 1952 North Carolina moved
ahead of any other state in its combined 4-H enrollment. In
1953 there were 12 national winners from this membership,
more than any other state. In a 5-year period, the state won 50
national honors. A statistical analysis of other features, pub-
lished by the North Carolina Research Institute in its weekly
Facts for July 4, 1953 is worthy of extended study.

North Carolina Leads U.S. in 4-H Members

North Carolina leads all the states in the Union in the
number of boys and girls enrolled as members in 4-H Clubs. At
the end of 1952, total enrollment was 140,369 in 2,280 clubs
located in every one of the State's 100 counties. Tennessee was
second with 130,845, and four other states, all of them Southern,
had enrollments of above 100,000 members.

Not only is North Carolina ahead of the other states in total
numbers but she also leads in per capita and per family mem-
bership enrollment. In view of the fact that the total rural farm
population in North Carolina is the largest of any state— a fact
which is still news to a great many Tar Heels— one would
expect North Carolina to have the largest 4-H Club member-
ship. But even after taking that fact into account, the State's
ratio of membership to population is higher than for the nation.

The total 4-H Club membership in the United States is
2,016,138, which means that North Carolina's 140,369 members
are about 7 percent of the total. On the other hand, the rural
farm population in North Carolina is only about 6 percent of
the Nation's rural farm population.

237

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241

North Carolina's total 4-H Club membership is the equiva-
lent to one member for every two rural farm families, whereas
this comparable ratio for the country as a whole is one for every
three rural farm families.

Another interesting comparison is in terms of population
for the age groups which comprise 4-H Club membership. Offi-
cially, the age-limits for membership are between 10 and 21,
although membership is usually dropped when the member
enters college. Actually, then, the 10-19 age groups would in-
clude nearly all 4-H Club members. On this basis, 44.54 percent
of the total rural farm population in North Carolina between 10
and 19 are enrolled in membership. The comparable percentage
for the United States as a whole is 43.94 percent.

Negro Enrollment Rate is Better Than White

In terms of the total population, Negroes have a better
record than whites in 4-H Club membership enrollment. Of the
total enrollment of 140,369, 47,098 are Negroes, which is about
34 percent of the total. Negroes comprise only 30 percent of the
total rural farm population in North Carolina.

The ratio of the number of clubs is about the same. Of the
total of 2,280 4-H Clubs in the state, 752, or 33 percent are
Negro.

Comparable figures for the United States are not available.

A more detailed analysis of the North Carolina enrollment
by race makes an even better showing in favor of Negroes. It is
important to note that all of the 47,098 Negro members are con-
fined to exactly 50 counties, no clubs for Negroes being in oper-
ation in the other 50 counties. The total rural farm population of
the 50 counties containing all the Negro members is about
888,000. Negroes comprise about 40 percent of the rural farm
population in these same 50 counties. The white 4-H Club enroll-
ment in those same 50 counties is 52,439.

In other words, in those 50 counties where Negro and white
clubs exist, the Negroes, comprising 40 percent of the popula-
tion, provide 47 percent of the total 4-H Club membership.

In 20 of the 50 counties which contain Negro clubs, the
Negro total enrollment is more than whites. In 14 of those coun-
ties the Negro rural farm population is larger than whites,
hence larger 4-H Club enrollments would be expected, but the
reverse is true in several counties. In Alamance, for instance.

242

Negroes comprise about one-third of the total rural farm popu-
lation and they comprise 60 percent of the 4-H Club member-
ship. In Chowan, Negroes constitute less than half the rural
farm population and they provide more than two-thirds of the
4-H club enrollment.

In Bertie, the ratio of Negro enrollment to white is more
than 4 to 1, whereas the population is only about 3 to 2.

North Carolina Growth Rate Exceeds
Any Other State

Not only in terms of total 4H Club membership but in rate
of growth, North Carolina is far ahead of any State. With such
a high rate of membership, one might expect that the growth
rate would level off. Presumably it has for the country as a
whole, but not in North Carolina.

During 1952, the number of members in North Carolina
increased from 133,251 to 140,369, an increase of 7,118 or 5.34
percent. During the same period, total United States member-
ship grew from 2,004,139 to 2,016,138, an increase of 11,999, or
.59 percent. Stated another way, 59.32 percent of the increase
for the entire United States during the year 1952 occurred in
North Carolina.

North Carolina also led in the number of 4-H'ers completing
projects of work which comprise the chief activity of members,
104,101, or 74.16 percent carrying their projects through to com-
pletion. . . . Maine was first in this respect, 96.69 percent of its
members completing their projects. There were, however, only
433 clubs and 5,392 members in the entire state of Maine.

Texas, as might have been expected, has the largest num-
ber of individual clubs, with 5,242. Michigan is second, with
4,746 and Ohio third, with 4,405. North Carolina's total number
of clubs, 2,280, ranks thirteenth among the states. Thus, it
becomes evident that the average number of members per club
in North Carolina is almost 300 percent higher than for the
country as a whole. The figures for North Carolina are about 62
members per club, whereas the comparable figure for the coun-
try as a whole is 23 per club. The comparable figure for Texas,
the state with the largest total number of clubs, is also 23 per
club.

North Carolina is slightly below the national average in the
percentage of its members completing their projects, the com-

243

parable figures being 74.16 percent and 79.24 percent, re-
spectively.

Projects, Projects, and More Projects!

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of 4-H Clubs is the great
variety of useful projects which members undertake and com-
plete. This project activity is required of all members. The vari-
ety and extent of the projects are almost unlimited. The member
must carry it through entirely on his own.

Last year, for instance, about 104,000 members participated
in the 4-H Health Improvement Program. Some of the others:

34,522 members conducted 4-H projects in field crops, gar-
dening and fruits on 37,678 acres, following agricultural practi-
ces recommended by the Extension Service.

2,613 members conducted forestry projects involving 3,906
acres.

7,161 members conducted poultry projects involving 740,559
birds.

4,901 members conducted dairy projects with 6,276 animals.

13,328 members conducted livestock and meat animal proj-
ects involving a total of 28,491 animals.

In food selection and preparation 21,649 members planned
and served 841,673 meals.

In food preservation 13,683 members conserved 796,230
quarts of food and froze 164,787 pounds of meat, foods and
vegetables.

27,138 clothing club members made a total of 147,544 gar-
ments and remodeled 96,837 garments.

10,975 members conducted projects in home management,
house furnishings and room improvement.

5,826 members completed projects in home management,
house furnishings, and room improvement.

Tractor maintenance, child care, farm shop, arts and crafts,
citizenship, public speaking, community relations, entomology,
soil and water conservation, farm and home safety, and recrea-
tion are still others among the many which these boys and girls
accomplish as they carry through their projects.

These 1952 facts and figures take our breath away. History
was being commemorated as well as made in this decade of
greatness, however. In 1955 on May 13 the surviving members
of the original Corn Club in the state joined Mr. Harrill and

244

I. O. Schaub in dedicating an official historical marker on the
school grounds of Ahoskie in Hertford County. At the State Fair
that fall the young club members from this county entered an
exhibit in the 4-H Department. The theme of "An Idea that
Grew" connected the 1909 organization with the state's current
2,356 clubs with a total membership of nearly 150,000.

By 1959, the Golden Anniversary of organized club work in
this state, there were 161,264 members in its 2,727 clubs. That
year 4-H celebrated itself again, nowhere more actively than at
Club Week where the Coliseum, now an accustomed facility,
became old-home-week for the thousands of members, young
and old, who turned up to honor 4-H, Mr. Harrill, and them-
selves. A booklet that helped to coordinate this yearlong cele-
bration was distributed to the counties before National 4-H Club
Week, February 28-March 7. The national theme of "Keep 4-H
on the Climb in '59" was a timely reminder for this state's pro-
gram. Looking back just through the decade that was ending,
an experienced eye could see how automatic climbing forward is
when the commitment is to making the best better in a success-
ful old program. A new project in entomology in 1952, a new
forestry camp approach in 1955 with new awards by Southern
Bell, 1957's junior enriched corn meal program sponsored for
black and white girls by the American Corn Millers Associa-
tion, National Camp changed to National Conference that same
year . . . camp staffing improvements, and an Automotive Care
project. The list could continue. In 1958 Negro club members,
for instance, held their first District Recognition Days, one in
Faison, one in Rocky Mount, and another in Winston-Salem.
The total attendance was 955. These Negro members, leaders,
parents, and county personnel came from 52 counties. They
represented a total membership of 54,126; there were 766 clubs
in these counties. About 5,000 more black girls than boys be-
longed. The number of agricultural and homemaking projects
completed by the enrollment was 61,234, estimated to have a
value of $2.5 million. This great work had been supervised and
encouraged by 5,497 voluntary adult leaders. From 1956 to 1958,
Anna Hunter followed Idell J. Randell on Cooper's A&T staff.
Helen Branford began work February 2, 1959. Mrs. Branford's
first year found Negro 4-H'ers holding not a 50th Anniversary
Celebration but their very first State Recognition Program. It
brought 163 project, program, and activity winners and their
supporting adults to Greensboro. Beyond this event, the only

245

1 I*

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Camp Schaub soon after the completion of its pool.

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Mitchell's main building from the waterfront.

higher recognition was the annual regional camp, attended
each year by a select few. No race-related problem in Extension
concerned the National Committee more than the continuation
of the unequal, dual recognition programs for 4-H in the South.
North Carolina's Bill Cooper was appointed chairman, by fed-
eral officials, of Negro 4-H state leaders in the region. His com-
mittee was to design interstate and regional incentives and find
sponsors for a new awards program for blacks. By 1961 when
this charge was finished, the last of the regional Negro camps
was held. The site was civil rights-conscious Washington, D.C.

246

Late in the 1950s biracial 4-H service projects on a state-
wide basis here included both the Highway Safety Program of
Governor Luther Hodges and a beautification or Litterbug Cam-
paign. Star News of Wilmington began a special program to
recognize white club members in Southeastern North Carolina.
It lasted many years and was to be fully integrated in time.
With reference to these changing dimensions of his statewide
program Mr. Harrill told his radio audience in early 1958 that
the greatest satisfaction he took in 4-H grew from the deep
moral and spiritual influence reflected in the lives of the partic-
ipating boys and girls. He might have said more about racial
harmony, but this interest in the growth of children into more
useful citizens led on the part of him and his staff to two special
features of the celebration of 1959. The North Carolina 4-H

Mr. 4-H had perfected his radio style by the time of this 1955 Club Week
interview. For almost 2 decades he had held weekly progams on WPTF.

247

Development Fund was launched in June with the goal of rais-
ing a million dollars through county and other contributions for
the support, mainly, of IFYE, camping, recognition and awards,
and scholarships. The McKimmon Loan Fund was still opera-
tional, and the 4-H Foundation in Greensboro was reporting
contributions of $114,000. Mrs. Charles Graham of Linwood
was the new Fund's first president. Each county was assigned a
quota based on a 4-H membership formula. Warren County, for
instance, contributed its share, $1,767.

The second 1959 investment in the future of the great 4-H
program already in place was a program to honor volunteer
leaders by giving two of them a free trip to National Congress
each year. Mrs. Woodrow Taylor of Lenoir County was one of
the first adults to be so honored. The program was sponsored in
early years by Frigidaire Sales Corporation of Charlotte. It
seemed inevitable that outstanding former members would fig-
ure prominently in adult volunteerism and in efforts to push the
Development Fund toward its goal. Thus Mr. Harrill arranged a
4-H Alumni luncheon during the 1959 Club Week, hoping that
these people and others would bind themselves into a larger
service group than Honor Club or the Young Men and Women's
Organization was ever meant to be. In recalling this effort, the
State Leader wrote in Memories of 4-H: "I want to digress
here ... to remember the more than modest pride I felt when
many of these former 4-H members attending the first alumni
luncheon turned out to be parents of some of that decade's fin-
est club members. There were several Honor Club members who
had sons or daughters being installed into the Honor Club. . . ."

Certainly the writer in Time, November 1951, did not have
Tar Heel 4-H'ers in mind when he wrote that "Youth today is
waiting for the hand of fate to fall on its shoulders, meanwhile
working fairly hard and saying almost nothing." Not dislodged
from their better course to greatness by the Korean War or ugly
McCarthyism and suffering no serious epidemics, no boys and
girls from the state's rural areas had ever been less placid than
the 4-H'ers of the 1950s. There was the momentum of the close
of the 1940s to thank, as well as the general prosperity and con-
fidence that permeated the air. Just plain pride was a factor,
too. Nothing smaller than Reynolds Coliseum would have fit;
this summer place of 4-H was big enough and just as hot as
necessary. Having been very comfortable the boys and girls
would have lost the basically religious quality of Club Week

248

The Golden Anniversary of North Carolina club life was full of danc-
ing and ceremony. Around the birthday cake of 1959 Mr. Harrill and
Dean Schaub are joined by State Home Economics Agent Nell Kennett,
2 Com Club charter members, and William Bates, state 4-H president
from Mecklenburg.

assemblies. In this same arena that in other seasons was mak-
ing collegiate basketball and North Carolina synonymous, 4-H
rocketed into national prominence and had, as well, its own big
four at home — every Club Week's edition of the health pageant,
dress revue, talent show, and candlelighting ceremony. The
next year's officers were still installed at this final ritual in
Riddick Stadium that brought to all the eyes the quiet, real
tears flames could burn right through.

The box suppers that filled this old gridiron were also
expected. Dividing the week's delegates up into groups called
Head, Heart, Hands, and Health was as natural as ever, as the
singing, for example, which was a little bit sacred regardless of
the songs. It made no difference if Raleigh's gifted Arnold Hoff-
man or Mr. Davis from Ohio were leading. It was a joyful noise.
If Mr. 4-H led, that made a difference in the loudness; but it was
his shirtsleeve speeches to look forward to mainly. The survival
raptures of the 1930s, the 40s' charmed patriotism— however
limited the occasions — these were poured like chocolate and
cream into the sound of his aging voice of the Coliseum 50s. It
was holy, a Dixie classic. No one asked why state public speak-
ing finals were held in Danforth Chapel in King Religious
Center.

249

Club members of the decade who looked forward in the Coli-
seum each year to the "Morning Thoughts" of Raleigh First
Presbyterian's Dr. Albert Edwards, a southern accent straight
from Scotland, still did not understand why Mr. Harrill did not
do his own preaching. More than a few of these kids were
shocked as adults, when his Images of 4- H appeared, to find the
folk sermons written down. It was too much to admit that each
one had been delivered many times from memory instead of
spoken, with fire, just once, and consumed. All who excelled at
4-H in this great decade had got as much of their training in
protestant churches as in club meetings wherever they were
held. Something about winning and going to Club Week seemed
Christian, and no one reminded anyone that 4-H Church Sun-
day was supposed to be just one day every year in the spring.

Here is that same fervor on the county level, in Rowan. An
older member is telling younger boys and girls about the 4-H
uniform to get for the stay in Raleigh.

"Uniforms are required at 4-H Club Week. They are
also nice for camp, special meetings, parades, and
regular meetings. The girls' uniform is a green and
white striped seersucker suit, white blouse, green and
white beanie, with a shoulder bag of the same mate-
rial as the outfit. Many girls make their own uniforms
as a part of their sewing projects.

"The boys' uniform is a white shirt, white trousers
and green tie."

Before the decade was out, the 4-H uniforms had been altered.
Then the boys wore green trousers, for example, and the outfit
of a girl was apt to be a dress rather than a suit, of the same
colors as before but often without the shoulder bag and the
beanie.

Above all these inducements to sustained success was the
joy of maturing through the planned competition which the
active rallying of the six districts made into acts of club faith
and lasting ways of life, as in the Southwestern District. Every-
one knew that as Fred Wagoner's domain, with responsibility
for Millstone thrown in. A model farm shop was erected there
by mid-decade. The Northeastern was Miss Clark's district,
everything arranged and her slightly wavy hair drawn back
and waiting in a bun. Mary Sue Moser and the North Central
were bonded, as were Dan Holler, whose memory never faltered.

250

.«£*'*

Branford

Carter

Reynolds McNeely

and the Northwestern. Quiet and genial Lyman Dixon had the
Eastern and the camp at Roanoke Island with its Quonset
summer home. The Western District and its two camps be-
longed to Mr. Phillips, the oldest agent of the lot, until 1954.
Then G. L. Carter, Jr. replaced him on Mr. Harrill's staff. Hal
Reynolds had taken Carter's place by 1959. Despite these
changes, this decade was one of unusual stability in both the
staff members on the state 4-H level and in districting itself.
Not numerous, considering the club enrollment and the host of
agents conducting 4-H in the 100 counties, Harrill's men and
women were of the school of diligence, and those who saw,
followed.

Goforth might be the actual name of an agent's exemplary
member. Iredell County's worker R. R. McNeely, later Extension
chairman in Rowan, was unexcelled. His club members made
their counties and the district into credits to his motivating
supervision. Whole families of Iredell champions, the Renegars,
for instance, paraded out of the decade of excellence into the
community of the recent present as exemplary citizens. Every
child in this family, like the four Holtzmans of Warren, claimed
Honor Club membership. Look further to the east. Who will ever
forget the skill in demonstrating that Murray Goodman's mem-
bers in Tyrrell won with in the late 50s. It did not stop there.
Clover grew everywhere, whether Lois Britt in Duplin or Bill
Shackelford in Nash worked the fields. Some fields were natu-
rally better than others. Wayne Adams was harvested by Honor
Club from the high sloping, hard meadows of Graham County.
He married a Renegar, Elaine.

Among the white district 4-H agents Miss Moser was poised
and impressive in formal presentations, but Miss Clark could
accomplish the same thing in a casual talk with boys and girls
from anywhere. She must have spent a lot of time sitting on the

251

■*^^^^''

The Coliseum remained, but girls' 4-H uniforms changed.

grass among them to make a lesson take such a natural shape.
Yet her sources were apt to be quite learned and always were up
to date. One was an article from the March 1959 issue of Agri-
cultural Leaders' Digest. Dr. Paul Miller, Director of Extension
at Michigan State University, wrote it.

He cited five color-free ideas that rural life leaders in the 60s
and beyond would have to understand and put into action. Just
how Miss Clark would get these points into young heads,
hearts, and hands is uncertain; but she might have started off
by saying that everyone knows the saying "Win new friends
but keep the old; the first are silver but the latter gold." And she

252

would glint about the eyes as, aloud, she revealed her best chum
to the children. In a lovely moment, however, she would throw
that vision off like a weed and say that gold isn't everything —
look at new ideas, for example. She would then hold the new
concepts of rural management in her cupped hands, explaining
how to apply all kinds of budgets to farm, family, land, neigh-
borhood, community, and the region. Moving the fingers of both
hands among each other she would next take up interdepend-
ence from Dr. Miller's sober text. Farmers and industry had
never been closer in young minds than when she moved on to
flexibility by waving her hands in a confined space. She knew
better than to tell the 4-H'er that this third idea was "the genius
of allocating Extension resources to problems of priority." Then
she let each finger rest where another had been a moment
before, but only for a short time. She began the circle of the
arms that demonstrates educational growth. As she spread
them with one quick motion she took off her glasses, for the
children would need to see her widening eyes to understand how
growth and vision are both related to planning and policy mak-
ing. Then it was her plan to come to rest, claiming directly that

51:

These uniformed boys are 1955 inductees of Honor Club. The items
they carry suggest their outstanding project work.

253

volunteering to lead was the final new idea. "How would each
of you show that with your hands?" As they raised them, she let
them stay up as long as they would. That was her goal.

Miller had written that the "success of tomorrow's Exten-
sion work may well be equated with the extent of volunteerism
on the part of the people." Certainly Mr. Harrill agreed in 1960
as never before. Miss Clark had not had to make him see. With
a record enrollment of about 170,000 members, with Johnston
4-H'er Rebecca Parker winning higher honors than ever a Tar
Heel had won before in Chicago or in Washington, it was, none-
theless, time to be flexible. Time to leave the school clubs of
almost half a century and to hold with community clubs
only . . . time to desert the dual program for rural youth and
integrate 4-H all across North Carolina.

Shaping and Sharing: The 1960s and Beyond

Governor Terry Sanford, who conceived of quality in public
education to the extent that schedules should be tightened and
food should be taxed to support the mission, as a teenage boy
had worked several summers at Millstone. It was not his educa-
tional policies alone that ushered 4-H out of the schools and into
communities which, as this decade wore on, were as apt to be
urban as rural. It is simply an irony of the clover program that
in its period of greatness after 1950, the state was steadily los-
ing its rural character, its rural population with it. In a WPTF
4-H broadcast in 1960 the new Governor said to Mr. Harrill and
Director Weaver, "I want to lead the nation in every respect.
The 4-H people are showing how."

Striding through the emphasis upon volunteer leadership in
the 30s, 40s, and 50s are suggestions that in this matter of mak-
ing social adjustments, the 4-H organization was, in fact, tak-
ing a lead. R. E. Jones knew the merits of community clubs. His
own diary, Harrill said, would prove his feeling that the best
4-H results came in community-centered clubs. Reflecting on the
alternative, he later wrote:

We perhaps went into the school system because, in
those early days, a good number of all local leaders
were associated with the schools. This is still true, but
the concentration of leadership is not so clearly
focused in the schools alone as was the case in the
1920s and 30s. And those good leaders in the schools

254

Governor Terry Sanford admires a gift during the 1962 Club Week as
Rev. Albert Edwards and 4-H president Eddie Davis applaud in the
Coliseum.

now have a much larger job taking care of mere aca-
demic essentials, not to mention the numerous other
school-related clubs and organizations that have
come in two major revampings of the United States
educational system following World War II and the
advent of the "space age."

An independent but related assessment of the times ap-
peared in National 4-H News in June-July 1977. As Associate
Director of the National 4-H Council, Ken Anderson wrote:

In the 50s and 60s, the 4-H curriculum expanded to
include many new subject areas and to deal more
effectively with social issues. In the process, the exper-
tise of the total land-grant university system and
other public and private resources began to be utilized
more fully. A new emphasis called "special interest
programs" evolved in the 50s. Through it, leaders
encourage youngsters to select projects and activities
according to their interests and needs. The 60s saw
many new program developments including Extension-
sponsored TV programs in several states. In 1968, the
first national 4-H TV series on photography was

255

started, followed in 1973 by "Mulligan Stew," a nutri-
tion series. New guidelines for the expansion and
further development of the 4-H program in the next
decade were established in 1976 when state and na-
tional 4-H and Extension leaders issued the "4-H in
Century HI" publication.

It is clear that more than a progressive Governor in a changing
southern state during an era of civil rights enlightenment was
behind the shaping and sharing that characterized Mr. Har-
rill's last years as State 4-H Leader and the terms of his three
successors as well. What Mr. 4-H liked to call the "great transi-
tion" hasn't stopped.

Starting in the early 1950s, probably in response to the
intensity of supervision that came about when each district had
its own club agent, school-based clubs in some areas began to
have an active community life in the summertime. The increase
in the number of agents on county staffs and the vastly im-
proved leader training program are additional explanations.
Some hands also point to the increased number of club func-
tions, including a camping program more active than ever —
with six camps, including Mitchell, after Swannanoa came fully
back into service; at any rate the word got around that 4-H was
the good life when school was out. Yet these community or local
clubs were officially viewed as supplementary to school clubs,
even if the community meetings continued all year. In truth, the
directed motion in which 4-H clubs were excused from North
Carolina's public schools began in 1957; Eisenhower was Presi-
dent and Luther Hodges was Governor. Not yet are the paper
versions of this exodus complete, but by 1962 the basic evidence
was already in. The new community 4-H mode would work and,
in fact, was doing the job in all parts of the state among both
races. Before considering this matter in a detailed case study,
however, one of its great ambiguities must be suggested.

Here where rural blacks and whites worked side by side, but
worshipped and studied and played and socialized in largely
separate and unequal facilities, urban citizens, many of them
but recently uprooted from the farms and villages, led the
southern way during the 50s and early 60s in racial protest and
pleas if not demands for social change. Out front were Greens-
boro and Chapel Hill. What would have been the effects upon
this state in the later 60s, 70s, and 80s if the 4-H clubs had con-

256

tinued in the schools while North Carolina was quickly urban-
ized and its system of public education integrated to the letter of
the revolutionizing laws proposed and passed during the Ken-
nedy and Johnson administrations? Both folk and professional
sociologists will keep this question alive. It is more important
than "Who were the Tar Heel 4-H National winners in 1964?" or
"When did the first blacks represent this state in Chicago?" To
be preoccupied with the names of the first white club members
to enjoy sailing at Camp Mitchell is to close the eyes and the
minds of worthy people with potentially open vistas.

The only query as strong as the first, then, is this: "Was the
social engineering of community clubs actually designed, how-
ever it was represented, to sidestep the integration of 4-H clubs
by removing them from the schools where mixture of the state's
races was imminent?" If this question was, in fact, an actual
concern, its ugly agendas are still hidden today. Clearly visible,
though, is this current situation. 4-H in North Carolina is now
integrated on every level except the basic or community one.
There are prized exceptions. But as county, district, state, and
national meetings as well as Extension staffs on these levels
have become affirmatively integrated activities and personnel,
at home the clubs and special interest groups still reflect the
abiding neighborhood lines that cover both the rural and urban
landscape. Leaving these matters open for further imagination,
there is just this one final observation. In the early 70s, the new
Jane S. McKimmon Continuing Education Center on the cam-
pus at N.C. State became a reality. Appropriate to its name and
purpose, it replaced Reynolds Coliseum and became the main
but not the only site of 4-H Club Week. The W. Kerr Scott Pavil-
ion at the State Fair, also a new facility with appropriate
connections to 4-H, got established as the setting for evening
programs. The venerable candlelighting ceremony moved to
nearby Dorton Arena. Both McKimmon and Scott, and later the
arena, were air conditioned; the basketball-busy coliseum is not
yet mechanically cooled. So in search of comfort, N.C. 4-H Con-
gress has lost its focus that Reynolds and the central campus
residence halls and classrooms of N.C. State had provided so
well for 20 years of club weeks. And this splintering of the event
by distances that require constant long walks and steady ve-
hicular transport came about when the 4-H races were getting
together in Raleigh for the first customary times. Someone has
remarked that at least it is a shorter distance from McKimmon

257

on Gorman St. to the Fairgrounds than from N.C. State to A&T,
Everyone can be glad and proud of that. The great transi-
tion ....

Mr. Harrill was honored in 1957 as The Progressive
Farmer's Man of the Year in North Carohna Agriculture. He
considered the recognition a high tribute to the program he
represented. The magazine, among other details, praised the
State 4-H Leader for his success in establishing the Austrian
youth program almost a decade before. By the end of 1957 it
was plain that clover could grow in the Alps. The Progressive
Farmer did not know that here, however, at home, a meeting
grander than the Austrian mission had been called to order.
Will clover still grow in the Old North State if agents stay prin-
cipally out of the field? That was the new question. The 1957
meeting that still isn't over was made up almost entirely of
paper. If adults outside of Extension employment were to be-
come the effective leaders of 4-H in the South, the job of the
appointed Southern Regional Leadership Committee was to
develop a leadership training program. That was the situation.
As in the 1940s with Paul Leagans, North Carolina was looked
to for the packaging of skills in teaching procedures for adult
leaders. Always highly enrolled, this state had nonetheless
never received high marks for its club organization. That and
other assignments in 1957 fell to other states and Puerto Rico,
as shown in this list:

Understanding Young People — Texas

Knowing the Philosophy and Objectives of 4-H — Kentucky

Knowing the Content of Project Work— Oklahoma

Being Aware of Local Club Activities — Georgia

Developing a Program — Louisiana

Knowing About County, State, and National Events and their

Objectives — Florida
Knowing the Community Responsibilities and Opportunities —

Tennessee
Knowing the County Responsibilities and Opportunities —

Mississippi
Measuring Achievement of Members — Puerto Rico
Securing Parent Support — South Carolina
Teaching Through Method Demonstration— Alabama
Learning How to Keep Records — Arkansas
Leadership Training Concepts for Extension Workers— Virginia

258

Jane S. McKimmon Center at NCSU.

Director Weaver appointed in 1959 a State 4-H Leadership
Committee to develop an adult leader training unit. Margaret
Clark and Dan Holler had been appointed by Mr. Harrill to
assume the major leadership role for the state 4-H staff. They in
turn worked with district agricultural and home economics
agents as well as administration in developing seven training
lessons, each two hours long. The topics were discussion, tours,
illustrated lectures, exhibits, farm-home visits, workshops, and
judging. These techniques were then piloted in nine counties
selected from both the six white and three black extension dis-
tricts. This work went forward as state 4-H enrollment con-
tinued to rise under the old school-centered arrangement; and
this new venture, of course, raised many questions in the rural
public, even though by 1959 the new pressure in the schools to
excel in math and science was perceived as a response to the
international space contest that exploded after Sputnik. Simul-
taneously state school officials ordered a study of the curricu-
lum to determine if there were activities in it which did not
make the greatest contribution to the desired school program.

In the spring of 1960, the second week of September was set
aside to evaluate the program in transition and plan for the
future. This schedule was the result of a two-day conference
which Federal Extension Specialist Lloyd Rutledge had held
with the state 4-H staff in 1959. A briefer conference had been

259

held with his colleague Joseph McAuliffe. It was McAuliffe who
ran the three-day September workshop in 1960. The first day
was devoted to bringing the visitor up to date. Among other fea-
tures of the transition, it was pointed out that Dare, Tyrrell, and
Pasquotank 4-H'ers had already reached their county goal in
the Development Fund Drive. There was a special satisfaction
in the fact that Dare, the last county to develop 4-H in the state,
in 1939, had been the first to reach this current objective. It was
also pointed out that Iredell and Mecklenburg had piloted that
summer new projects in water and farm pond safety. The
second day the workshop visited in Jones and Columbus, two of
the counties with community 4-H clubs as supplements to
school clubs. The interviews conducted during this travel made
it apparent that leaders, members, parents, and staff were
interested in improving the club program. Agents like Elaine
Blake in these and other counties were motivated by some of the
following prospects: their increasing work beyond 4-H, new
directions in the public schools, increased public interest in club
work, urbanizing 4-H as the number of rural non-farm families
rose, the importance of gearing projects and activities to several
age levels, and the growing awareness of Extension's responsi-
bility to all youth in the state.

At the end of the third day of McAuliffe's September visit,
Mr. Harrill and his assistants were ready to present a statewide
plan of action for presentation to other members of the district
and administrative group in Raleigh and Greensboro. In
November the new community 4-H club concept was presented
to the state subject matter specialists. The 4-H staff feared that
these specialists underestimated the implications for club litera-
ture if trained leaders instead of educated, experienced agents
were the main links in the extending chain. It was also in
November that a committee made up of state, district, and
county agents plus two specialists in subject matter met to
review the seven teaching techniques that had been developed
since the 1957 regional directive. R. R. McNeely brought his
county 4-H genius to bear. It was beginning to be clear by the
end of 1960 that in community clubs youth would be addressed
in three age groups. This realization would mean a thorough
overhaul of the project files and booklets, for example. Yet it
was clearly a worthwhile undertaking. The community organi-
zation mode would bring the work and play of 4-H closer to all
people than had ever been true in North Carolina before.

260

This outline shows where things stood at the end of 1960:

NORTH CAROLINA COMMUNITY
4-H CLUB PROGRAM

I. Long Range Objective:

To have 4-H Clubs organized on a community basis; to be
promoted by sponsoring committees; to be conducted by
trained community 4-H leaders and assisted by subject mat-
ter and junior leaders.
II. Immediate Objectives:

To have the state 4-H staff and administration learn the
status of 4-H adult leadership in the counties, district, and
state.

To develop a recommended procedure for agents to follow
in putting the Community 4-H Club program into action.

To prepare a plan for the continuance and further devel-
opment of the Community 4-H Club program.

To develop organizational literature to fit the pattern of
Community 4-H Clubs.

To request subject matter specialists to prepare literature
on three age levels for use by 4-H members, subject matter
leaders, and agents.

Before Christmas daylong district meetings, nine in all, were
held to discuss the concept of community clubs. Holler and
Clark were virtual satellites. Not all agents came away from
these sessions convinced of the merits of the move, but the dis-
cussions had been frank. Some of the questions answered were:
How many members will a club of this sort have? Where will it
meet? What are subject matter leaders? What are their respon-
sibilities? What will the community leaders do? How do the
county workers and subject matter specialists fit in? A brochure
entitled "Community 4-H Clubs in North Carolina, Part I" was
used during the sessions. Part II, including recommended pro-
cedures for agents in addition to visuals and other literature,
became available by the following March.

Later that year Dan Holler enrolled in summer school at
Cornell University to study 4-H leadership in particular. Both
before and after his leave, the state 4-H staff met regularly with
state subject matter specialists and four members of the Federal
Extension staff. In addition to Rutledge and McAuliffe, these
agents were Dr. E. J. Niederfrank and Fern Kelly. No less than

261

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262

five separate workshops were conducted. To this level of activ-
ity, above and beyond the weekly club operations, was joined in
January and February a series of half-day benchmark confer-
ences conducted by, in a given locale, three district agents
(farm, home, and 4-H) in every county of the state! To see where
4-H stood everywhere was the purpose of this gruelling survey.
Besides collecting information, the agents and county personnel
made plans for acquainting the local public with the new look
of 4-H. Elected officials, school staff, the media, and club mem-
bers themselves figured in the public relations plans which were
in place before National 4-H Club Week. Also the benchmarkers
designated two agents in each county to put the community
club concept into action; the appointment of a county 4-H advi-
sory committee was suggested as a place to begin.

Back in Raleigh the district agents consulted with subject
matter specialists, and in April and May another series of nine
district meetings, this time the workshop lasted two days, was
conducted. Besides summarizing and evaluating the benchmark
results, the state 4-H staff presented Federal Agent Rutledge,
who, assisted by Emmie Nelson of the National 4-H Service
Committee, compelled the county agents to look at themselves
in terms of what their counterparts in other states were doing in
the name of 4-H. Actual training of the agents in the work lying
ahead took up the second day of this workshop. It was
December 1961 when the nine districts were again used for
training, this time to focus on club literature graded for the
three age levels. This emphasis necessarily led to a better
understanding of the vital role of local subject matter leaders.

About this time Buncombe's Dick Smith took over 4-H in
the Western District from Hal Reynolds who joined the Agricul-
tural Information Staff. Back in August and September each
district 4-H agent had called on his counties to determine com-
munity club progress and set goals in a plan of work for 1962.
These particular visits led to the preceding statistical summar-
ies and projections.

These tables reflect not only the assiduousness of Extension
agents on all levels. Here too is seen the hallmark of D. S.
Weaver's 11 years as Director of Extension. His devotion to thor-
ough planning, professional accuracy, and diligence was con-
tinued when in 1961 his retirement brought into the directorship
R. W. Shoffner, a veteran, like Weaver, of the entire service and
recently an assistant director. Mr. Harrill recognized in Bob

263

Smith

Fitz

Moore

Edwards

Shoffner a particular supporter of the 4-H Development Fund as
well as the community club movement.

January 4, 1962 the state 4-H staff compiled the first list of
visual aids and other operational literature for training the new
leaders and subject matter leaders in particular. Attached to the
resources are several observations about morale. Recognizing
the essential link between adult leaders and community 4-H
clubs, for instance, had made Extension agents more, rather
than less, receptive to promoting the program. There were also
these recognized needs:

1. Continuous training of professional workers on county
and state levels.

2. Total extension program and teamwork of state, district
and county extension workers.

3. Establishing and training more adult and junior 4-H
leaders.

4. Stronger public relations program.

5. "Tools" (adequate budget, literature and visuals) to do
the job.

This spirit of evaluation and adaptation characterized the
entire year of 1962. The counties were visited by three district
agents in January and February. In May, Rutledge returned to
Raleigh for a staff conference and then made several county
visits himself. The signs of life and health he found were satis-
factory, and in July Mr. Harrill and his staff spent one day in
conference with Dr. Selz Mayo, Head of Rural Sociology at
State. Also present was Paul Marsh, Extension Evaluation Spe-
cialist. Growing out of this meeting, a 2-day conference with
Marsh and Federal Agent Harland Copeland in mid-September
planned further aspects of the community club program. One
was an October workshop on developing pilot literature in

264

plants and soils. For this session McAuliffe returned to Raleigh,
bringing with him Federal Agronomy Specialist Dixie Paulling.
N. C. State University Extension Agronomist E. R. Collins and
his staff joined the 4-H staff for the discussion. Another result
of the September meeting was the one in late January 1963 to
discuss the development of the evaluation unit for the concerted
work of redirecting 4-H in the Southern Region since 1957.
Rutledge was in Raleigh for the 2-day conference. The preceding
week the state staff had conducted its own training school for
57 new agents who would directly be responsible for training
community club workers in the counties.

By the end of 1962 this state effort that transcended every
other feature of the 4-H operation was getting a seal of approval
in the various arenas of judgment. The 4-H Development Fund
had not perished for lack of attention. Indeed, in 1962 it was
already half way to its million-dollar goal. Not until the spring
of 1963 was the instrument devised to measure progress in the
state's 2,800 community clubs. It was mainly the work of Clark,
Holler and Paul Marsh. What did the actual survey show?
Morale was up; enrollment was down. When hard statistics
were material proof of what had been already sensed and 1963's
Club Week was history, it was finally time for Mr. 4-H to go. He
retired in the late summer of the year, leaving Lyman Dixon as
acting State 4-H Leader until Dr. Blalock could take over in
1964. An era had been fading for the last several years and now
it was done.

Harrill's departure was a quite, widely noticed one. His wife
established in his honor a $50,000 L. R. Harrill Scholarship
Fund to provide a minimum of two scholarships each year to
worthy 4-H members. The General Assembly resolved, to the
pleasure of Governor Sanford, that 4-H and its leader of almost
38 years be recognized for the "progressive programs which
have served and are serving to open new doors of opportunity,
to broaden horizons, to provide challenging experiences, to give
knowledge, to sharpen the imagination, and to impart skills to
challenge the ingenuity of young people." The aging man him-
self had imagination and ingenuity still — looking on from the
sideline, writing, and having his say in an offhand manner. No
other Tar Heel has even the prospect of equalling his 4-H lead-
ership record of either service or achievement. He had had no
obvious sense of the considerable wealth he and Mrs. Harrill
commanded and, loving his 4-H job, had no known desire for

265

any other. He was good to have been led by. Who can count the
hundreds of thousands of people who would vouch for that?
R. E. Jones told him that he seemed permeated by a desire to
see all boys and girls understood, tolerated, and willingly led.

Although Mr. Harrill had taken a part in the decision
within the Consolidated University of North Carolina to build a
new 4-H center on the bequeathed Chinqua-Penn Plantation, it
fell to Fred Wagoner, the staffs camping wizard, to see the
actual construction through. Mrs. Penn had donated the camp-
site bordering a large lake in addition to $250,000. The resulting
Betsy-Jeff Penn 4-H Center was dedicated by an official party
led by T. C. Blalock as 4-H Leader on the site on May 24, 1964.
This newest facility in the 4-H system included a modern pool.
One of the best state centers in all the land, Penn became a
camp for all seasons. For all people too — for after 1964 there

Jesse Owens, the 1936 Olympics hero of "all deliberate speed," signs
autographs in the Coliseum after a Club Week address in 1968.

266

Director Robert Wood, with pipe, discusses 4-H Development Fund
goals with Margarette Laughinghouse of Pantego, John D. Wright,
NCSU Vice Chancellor, and George Worsley, Wright's successor in
Finance and Business. Mrs. Laughinghouse headed the Fund in 1969
and 70,

was finally only one 4-H program in North Carolina. Integra-
tion and community clubs were official realities. This particular
coincidence has received considerable comment and still de-
serves serious study.

But what, for instance, were the characteristics of the first
integrated gatherings on the various levels of club activity?
With mixed emotions Mr. Cooper has recalled the approxi-
mately 50 blacks at the integrated 1965 Raleigh Club Week.
Most of them were from Washington County. Since the com-
munity clubs themselves were not very integrated, can numbers
demonstrate whether the community concept, besides reducing
the total state membership initially, obviously changed the
patterns of the old white and Negro 4-H clubs of the recent
school days? In the midst of interests like these, specialist Pau-
line Moore moved from the Greensboro campus to Raleigh in
1964 and began advanced study at State. Bill Cooper himself
also began to maintain offices and contacts on both campuses
as well as throughout the state. Miss Moore had come from Ire-
dell to the A&T staff to replace Gwendolyn Fitz, a 4-H agent

267

there since Helen Branford's promotion early in the decade.

Within several years of beginning operation, Penn 4-H Cen-
ter became the permanent site of the annual Honor Club confer-
ences in June. The 1965 meeting was held in Manteo, but within
just a few years the entire Roanoke Island Camp had to be
abandoned because of the rapid agrading of the beach on the
sound. Thus Mitchell at Swansboro became, soon after integra-
tion of programs, the only 4-H camp in the eastern part of the
state. Besides being the place in the late 60s where Honor Club
worked out its modern governance, including a board of direc-
tors and longrange financial security, Penn also became in the
70s the setting of early spring weekend district retreats. District
officers, for instance, are now elected at these sessions and not,
as in the past, at district activity days.

Since well into the 50s 4-H had been going to town in the
literal sense; in the 60s, along with the other changes, it went
into the state's cities as well. This additional factor directly
affected the accomplishments of Carlton Blalock's seven years
as State Leader. First in 1966 in Catawba County and then
across the state, special interest groups served as ways of
attracting young members to 4-H. Blalock assumed national
leadership in this wise venture. There followed a volunteer
leader boom with area-wide training programs in North Caro-
lina. Urbanization was working well for 4-H. In December 1969
the Development Fund reached its initial million-dollar goal;
much of its success was due to the active management of Robert
Wood, a former Alamance 4-H member. The next year Leader
Blalock left his post to become the associate to Extension Direc-
tor George Hyatt, Jr., who had followed Shoffner in 1963.

In August 1970 when Chester Black became State 4-H
Leader, a second drive of the Development Fund had already
been launched. The State 4-H Council two years later developed
and approved a constitution, its first; and television's appeal
was exploited as "Mulligan Stew," the powerful national 4-H
nutrition series, also reached 125,000 youth here in 1972. At
Iowa and Michigan State this program had been born under
directives from national 4-H TV coordinator Eleanor Wilson for
the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program
(EFNEP). Filmed on location in Washington's southeast sector,
"Stew" was the vision finally of Ira Klugerman of WQED Pitts-
burgh. The final word in North Carolina was monitored on
Black's staff by Cleo J. Edwards, who earlier had worked

268

Garmon Chesney Conoley Cranford

closely with district activity days across the integrated state.
Director Hyatt, national chairman of Extension's Committee on
Organization and Policy (ECOP), in 1974 received a request for
a new series on improvement in agricultural marketing. This
proposal was funded, but the pilot of the film spelled eventual
death for the series.

1973 had seen 4-H in the saddle in North Carolina. 4-H
Horse Camp was rounded up at Millstone, and the Tar Heel 4-H
Horse Judging Team won the national title in Dallas, Texas. In
time stables and rinks were established at both Penn and Mill-
stone. District Program Leader W. M. Garmon deserves much of
the credit for the success of this work.

By 1974 the total club enrollment had climbed again toward
the 100,000 mark, and the drive for funds was boding well for
future developments. That year the state's project and activity
winners brought home a record 14 national championships
from Chicago and sent the National 4-H Center, in addition to
the four National Conference delegates, the final payment of a
$75,000 state pledge for the facility's expansion in suburban
Washington.

Here is another perspective on 1974, the first year of the
second decade of urbanized, integrated community 4-H in North
Carolina.

A total of 178,563 young people participated in 4-H

programs.

38,300 youth were involved in community clubs.

57,100 youth participated in special interest groups.

103,000 youngsters enrolled in the "Mulligan Stew"

nutrition series.

44,000 boys and girls participated in EFNEP.

10,000 volunteer adults provided leadership.

269

On Dr. Black's professional staff were Lyman Dixon, the
associate leader, and these specialists:

Clyde Chesney

Neal Conoley

W. C. Cooper

Dr. Mary L. Cranford

Mrs. Cleo J. Edwards

Thelma Feaster

W. M. Garmon

Dan Holler (special assignments)

Dr. Charles E. Lewis

Richard Liles

Pauline Moore

Dr. Dalton R. Proctor

Henry Revell, Jr.

Fred Wagoner

The relationship of this list to the group, including Wagoner,
Holler, and Dixon, who served more than a decade under Mr.
Harrill can be explained in the following way. Margaret Clark
retired in 1966. Miss Moser stayed on until 1972, when she mar-
ried Johnny Stephens of Wake County. Dick Smith after 1973
went on study leave; in 1975 he was named Agricultural Chair-
man in the South Central District and was serving in that
capacity in the Southwestern at the time of his death in 1982. In
1973 his associate, Mary Louise Cranford, a recreation special-
ist and later Mrs. W. B. Nesbitt, had joined the staff in Miss
Moser's place, just as Cleo Jones, a confident agent from Edge-
combe, now Mrs. Reese Edwards, had been hired by Blalock
after Margaret Clark's retirement.

Besides Moore and Cooper, Thelma Feaster, Henry Revell,
Jr., and most recently Clyde Chesney, also a recreationist,
represented Coltrane Hall's interests at A&T in the 4-H and
youth mission now extended from N.C. State. In 1964 Bill Gar-
mon, who had worked as an administrative management as-
sistant under Robert Shoffner, began his long service in Ricks
Hall and was named Eastern District 4-H Agent by 1965.
Wayne Smith, brother of today's Lathan Smith, served a couple
of years on Blalock's staff and continued with Black until 1973.

Revell

270

He has since worked in Virginia and Florida. Black also em-
ployed David Burnette in the early 70s after his 4-H work in
Burke and Mitchell as agent. He was later hired as Agricultural
Chairman in the Western District in the early 80s, having by
then served as Chairman in Buncombe. From Harnett County
to Raleigh came Neal Conoley, whose short tenure on Black's
staff saw further development of projects in bicycle safety, as
pioneered by Burnette. He and a Wake County 4-H Agent,
Richard Liles, were new on the 1974 state roster of 4-H special-
ists. They have the distinction, as well, of successfully leading
black 4-H'ers from nonfarm areas into club prominence. Liles,
for example, worked in the county with Wake's Willie Earl Wil-
son, who later led Honor Club as president in 1978-79 after he
had begun work as an agent in Union County, that rich field for
Tar Heel 4-H in this era. Kenneth Doctor, heir in Richmond
County to Conoley's bicycle project initiatives, won high honors
himself, including a position as reporter on the state 4-H coun-
cil. He was in 1978 the first black to win election to this body
since 4-H integration. The specialist on the state staff since
1972 with training to study phenomena such as the success of
Doctor and Wilson was Dr. Charles E. "Pete" Lewis, who before
1980 ended had become county Extension chairman in New
Hanover. Specialist in Charge Dr. Dalton R. Proctor, a com-
munity development specialist at State, joined the 4-H staff in
1974. He succeeded Lyman Dixon as associate state leader
when Dixon (and Holler) stepped down in 1975, and it was Proc-
tor who briefly acted as state leader until Dr. Stormer took over
in 1976.

The expansion in variety and scope of the state's camping
facilities continued under both Black and Stormer. April 30,
1975 the Anita-Alta Outpost Camp in Caldwell County was dedi-
cated. Luther and Mildred Robinson, the parents of polio vic-
tims, gave this 375-acre living memorial to the 4-H program. A
pool, like the one already built at Mitchell, was added at Mill-
stone in 1979, and new water works came on line there a little
later. Meanwhile, 4-H'ers in certain counties, Warren is an
example, were conducting local wilderness camps; survival train-
ing, ecology, and nature study made up the curriculum, with, of
course, the customary emphasis upon recreation paid in the
established group camps. The Stokes County facility called
Camp Sertoma and used for many years as a center for recreat-
ing handicapped youth became new 4-H property in 1980.

271

Bumette

Lewis

Proctor

Bachert

Under the supervision of Del Bachert who had succeeded Fred
Wagoner as speciaUst in 1979, Sertoma 4-H Camp was re-
claimed from undergrowth and neglect in time for the camping
season of 1982. This beautiful site includes the once fashionable
spa named Vade Mecum, both the spring and the old hotel,
which Extension agents had used in the early 1940s as a center
for learning how to train that era's neighborhood 4-H leaders.
Activities for 4-H'ers at this new camp during the summer of '83
included:

Swimming

— Beginner and Advanced
Water Aerobics
Outdoor Living

— Equipment

— Setting up camp

— Outdoor cooking

— Roughing it

— Overnight Camping

— Nature Appreciation

— Creek Mining

— Fishing Techniques

— Trees and plants

— Nature crafts

Performing Arts

— Acting

— Choral music

— Improvisation

— Puppetry

— Skits and stunts

— Dancing

— Set construction

— Stage lighting

— Make up

— Mask making

— Aerobics

— Beauty and Fashion
Archery
River Canoeing
Camp Craft
First Aid
New Games

At nearby and equally active Penn, in August 1980 the Wag-
oner Learning Center was dedicated. It is a valuable resource
and tribute to a lifelong 4-H'er who since 1965 had been not a
district agent but the 4-H camping specialist, in addition to

272

advising State's Collegiate 4-H Club and the boat people of each
State Fair, as well as Honor Club.

During the last years of Harrill's leadership this old service
organization, in addition to its usual function of recognizing
new members annually and assisting at Club Week, had given
scholarships in the 4-H awards program. Later in Blalock's
time this service was changed into a recognition program for
outstanding adult leaders in each district every year and a sys-
tem of annual cash awards for clubs with the best community
service records in the state. For North Carolina 4-H Congress,
in 1975 a pageant of 4-H history written and acted by Honor
Club members was presented on Monday evening. This venture,
in the midst of the national bicentennial celebration, provided
the momentum for the establishment in early 1976 of the 4-H
Historical Collection in the Archives of D. H. Hill Library at
N. C. State University. Since the signing of the agreement by
Honor Club President Gwen White, Archivist Maurice Toler,
and Acting 4-H Leader Dalton Proctor, this collection has
grown around the nucleus of materials left to the Archives by
Mr. Harrill when he retired. After Mr. 4-H's death in 1978,
Honor Club established a memorial fund which was used the

'.,i^ytx:-vyKf%f^ ■

'^f?"''

Choosing up sides for volley ball at the dedication of Sertoma 4-H
Camp in 1982.

273

next year to build a new gateway and sign for Camp Millstone.
The summer he died, a Congress slide show had represented his
life and work to a generation of 4-H'ers who may hardly have
heard of him before. In 1981, the 50th anniversary of his found-
ing of Honor Club, this organization, which had earlier been
instrumental in having archival showcases installed in
McKimmon Center for the display of 4-H and related Extension
history, participated in the dedication of both the Ricks Hall
4-H suite and a handsome new set of premium showcases in the
University Archives to Mr. 4-H. As a service project in support
of active 4-H'ers, Honor Club also published in a computerized
format an updated Honor Club Directory. This founder's edition
was the first directory actually published since, in 1961, Mr.
Harrill had brought one out in the hope of finding the expe-
rienced volunteers his new community club venture would de-
mand. A similar need for volunteers in the 80s impelled State
Leader Stormer and Director Blalock to provide clerical and
financial support for this project. Through the further initiative
of Honor Club members, the 1981 state 4-H project called "Part-
ners in Prevention" was carried out in cooperation with Gover-
nor James B. Hunt, Jr. and the Department of Crime Control
and Public Safety. In merging Community Watch with other
4-H interests, the commercial sponsor was Texasgulf. That busy
spring had also included a work-day for Honor Club at Camp
Sertoma and a barbecue at the State Fairground's Harrill Youth
Center, dedicated a decade before by the organization, for the
delegates to the National Collegiate 4-H Conference which con-
vened in Raleigh for the first time.

Exploiting the burgeoning 4-H interest and knowhow in
multimedia technology, an outgrowth of photography as a proj-
ect. State 4-H Congress in the late 70s began to supplement and
finally replaced the old newspaper called "Clover Leaves" with
a daily visual newsletter. The staff of capable 4-H'ers were the
talented eye of Agricultural Communication's Mark Dearmon
and the smooth ear and voice of Janice Christensen. Their joint
success carried this innovative program all the way to Chicago
to rave state and national 4-H reviews.

Perhaps no accomplishment of the Stormer leadership will
have more long-lasting value than the encouragement by his
staff of the state's volunteer 4-H leaders to organize themselves
on both the district and state as well as the county level. The
first state convention was held at McKimmon Center,

274

November 3-4, 1979. Catawba county native James Reinhardt,
in 1981 the first president of this group, had served in earher
decades as both state council and 4-H Honor Club president.
Specialist Thearon McKinney has offered direction and resour-
ces to these various volunteers since 1976. (See chart on page
276.) Other new members of the Stormer staff by 1979 were Spe-
cialist Judy M. Groff as well as Lathan Smith and James West,
who are District Program Leaders. Chesney, Feaster, Nesbitt,
and Edwards had taken leave, resigned, or soon did so by 1980.
June 1 of that year, Richard Liles, who had been on leave,
joined the faculty of NCSU in Adult and Community College
Education.

Serving longer in Raleigh than any other agent or special-
ist with Greensboro connections. Miss Moore has taken special
responsibility for district activity days, public speaking, and
IFYE screening as well as placement. Recently this latter work
has been shared with a committee of former international dele-
gates. (IFYE adjusted its name in 1977 to become International
Four-H Youth Exchange.) Through the initiative of Carolyn
Smith Ivey of Gibsonville and others, these IFYE volunteers,
many of them members of Honor Club, point proudly to related
achievements. The Kinton girls of Harnett County, for example,
have all three been IFYE delegates and belong to Honor Club.
In Iredell the McAuley children are all members of the service
organization, and one of them, David, has been an IFYE in the
Soviet Union. Moore County's McCaskill children claim a slight-
ly different distinction. All four of them belong to Honor Club
and already are Extension agents or in training for the work.

In addition to Fred Wagoner, Bill Cooper, who retired in
late 1974, was a 4-H specialist for 30 years on the state level.
The camp belltower at Mitchell proclaims his high level of ser-
vice. Mr. Cooper's interest in preserving the history of the

275

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276

statistical Profile of the
1978 North Carolina 4-H Program

4-H Clubs 1.730

Club Members 34.191

4-H Special Interest Groups 1,518

Membership 62,854

Total Units 3,248

Total Members 97,045

Age: Less than 12 41.972

12-14 38,269

15 and over 16,804

Race: White 61.331

Black 34,898

Other 816

Sex: Girls 56,493

Boys 40.552

Residence: Farm 20.343

Towns under 10,000 48,528

10,000-50.000 10.884

50,000 and over 17,290

Total 4-H Leaders: 14,206

Adults: 11,213

Male 3,909

Female 7,304

Juniors: 2.993

Male 1,113

Female 1,880

Race: White 10,558

Black 3,562

Other 86

Camping: Resident 4-H Camp Attendance 4,874

Local 4-H Camp Attendance 14,577

Project, Demonstration and Activity Participation (10 Leading Subject Areas)

Safety 18,973

Human Relationships, Behavioral Sciences 14,933

Leisure Education 10,155

Food & Nutrition (Does not include 4-H EFNEP) 9,020

Clothing & Textiles 7.987

Health & Physical Fitness 7,592

Community Development Volunteer 7,379

Creative Crafts 6,824

Horses and Ponies 6,654

Bicycle Care & Safety 6,557

National 4-H Enrollment 6 million

277

Extension work he had loved to do has been evidenced as well
by his keeping and sharing of club records and reminders. The
preceding figures from a later source are for 1978, after Cooper's
employment but not beyond his knowledge. Forty-one delegates
represented North Carolina in Chicago that year. The statistics
show 4-H covering the state in a graded program with special
interest groups and an amazing army of trained volunteers.

Folks who have the leisure to lend a hand in the 4-H direc-
tion have always been numerous. The table shows that abiding
truth. This is an era when neither the leaders nor the followers
are in uniform, however. 4-H uniforms did not withstand the
various changes of the 1960s and early 70s. One day there will
be a uniform again. Once there was not a Union County 4-H'er
in the state; today there is hardly anyone in 4-H who does not
know the winning species of clover being grown there in the
last decade. Other counties, as in the past, will come into their
own. Unlike Franklin M. Reek's 4-H Story published over 30
years ago, a recent history of the national 4-H movement in-
cludes not a single substantive reference to 4-H or its predeces-
sors in North Carolina. Perhaps that is also as it should be, for

278

there is clover all over the country. Still, we should know our
own club species. The local possibilities are fantastic.

When we meet a chicken, for instance, it might be con-
nected to the 4-H Pullet Chain that Mr. Parrish and Sears,
Roebuck and Co. began extending in 1945. Not many people
know, by the way, that when that mighty thing got started
there was an actual North Carolina shortage of poultry that
amounted to 1,800,000 chickens! It is worth remembering that
the state's pullet production was actually down 18 percent, de-
spite the feverish WWII effort, before 4-H boys and girls of both
races picked it up and passed it on in North Carolina. . . .

Prospects

For the third century of United States history the initial
course of 4-H has already been charted in Washington and
Raleigh. As the green, growing, and great periods of club work
and play in North Carolina correspond to the seasons of spring,
summer, and autumn; it is somewhat perplexing to usher in
winter, the period of resting and dormancy in nature, for our
4-H chronicle. But since the matters of harvest and replenish-
ment connect in this cyclical way, there is no other natural
course. What is obvious in our 4-H past is clearly a prologue for
the future of the clover program.

Here are the recommendations of the national 4-H in Cen-
tury III Committee chaired by Michigan State 4-H Director
Norman Brown.

1. A highly desirable goal for the next decade of Century III
would be to double the number of volunteer leaders serving
4-H.

2. Major emphasis of subject-matter specialists should be
placed on developing increased support materials and train-
ing for volunteer leaders to help improve their effectiveness
as well as expand their functions and responsibilities. These
programming efforts should emphasize the dual objective of
teaching subject matter and life skills.

3. All staff responsible for the 4-H program should make in-
creased efforts to inform and solicit assistance from admin-
istrative and supervisory staff, subject-matter specialists
and other university personnel where appropriate inputs
can be made by them to strengthen the 4-H program.

279

4. Additional thousands of teenagers should be recruited and
trained for significant leadership roles and involved in the
shaping of the 4-H program at the local, county, state and
national levels.

5. There must be an increase of at least 50 percent in the pro-
fessional or paraprofessional staff devoted to 4-H.

6. There should be expanded opportunities for professional
staff working in the 4-H program to make a career of youth
education with criteria, status, salary and promotional oppor-
tunities that are adequate to develop and maintain a quality
4-H program.

7. It is imperative that the expanded roles of the volunteers
and paraprofessional staff and the functions and responsi-
bilities of the professional staff be more clearly defined.

8. Continued and expanded opportunities should be provided
for a creative, on-going staff development and training pro-
gram that enables staff to operate a cost-effective system
within available resources.

9. The desired increase in youth participation will require at
least a 100 percent increase in private funding at local,
county, state and national levels.

10. Additional public funding must also be accomplished in
order to achieve a 50 percent increase in professional or
paraprofessional staff.

11. Continued efforts should be directed toward effectively involv-
ing youth and volunteer leaders from all socio-economic,
cultural and ethnic groups throughout the program-
planning process.

12. All youth should have the opportunity to participate in the
4-H program, regardless of age, where responsible leaders
and resources are available and circumstances warrant.

13. It should be recognized that all youth who have an active
experience in programs of the Cooperative Extension Ser-
vice are 4-H participants.

14. As a medium for reaching many young people, educational
television should be used more extensively and additional
4-H television programs should be developed.

15. More efforts must be directed toward publicizing vital informa-
tion on 4-H.

16. A more effective and systematic program of evaluation,
reporting and accountability must be developed.

17. Deliberate efforts must be made in all 4-H programs to

280

assure that opportunities exist for increasing the under-
standing of economic systems. Business and economics
must be considered important ingredients in 4-H curricula,
and exciting 4-H programs must be designed to combine
economic principles with actual work experience.

18. Skills development and career exploration opportunities
should be expanded, using all available community re-
sources.

19. Food and fiber programs — including the areas of produc-
tion, processing, marketing and consumption — should be
expanded.

20. The 4-H environmental improvement program must have
high priority, and resource allocations must be commensu-
rate with the needs. Program emphasis should be placed on:
building understandings of ecological principles and the re-
lationships of man and his environment, contributing to
solutions to the problems, and sharing citizenship responsi-
bilities to optimize environmental resources.

21. Family-centered 4-H activities which actively involve all
family members should be emphasized. Creative ap-
proaches are needed to help determine how 4-H programs
can even more effectively strengthen families and better
prepare youth for their roles in families.

22. 4-H nutrition education programs should be imaginatively
conducted to help youth learn to make wise decisions re-
lated to their diets. Special efforts should be made to involve
more youth from low-income families in these programs.

23. Consumer education programs should be conducted to help
youth make wise decisions for goods and services and to
become aware of their responsibilities as consumers.

24. The 4-H health education program should be expanded to
provide opportunities for youth and adults to work together
to identify and meet individual and community health
needs.

25. Citizenship and leadership development, with emphasis on
skills and attitudes needed to contribute in our democratic
system, should be given high priority in the 4-H program at
local, county, state, national and international levels. More
opportunities should be provided also for youth to commit
themselves to solving the real and significant problems of
their communities.

26. 4-H programs in creative and performing arts and leisure

281

education should continue to be designed and implemented
to provide youth the necessary knowledge and skills which
can contribute to an improved quality of life.

27. 4-H communication programs need increased efforts in the
areas of group interaction and interpersonal communica-
tion.

28. Conservation and wise use of our energy resources must be
the theme of 4-H programs and related to all subject-matter
areas where relevant.

National 4-H News asked experts from across the country how
4-H volunteer leaders, county Extension agents, and others
could implement these 28 recommendations. The informative
responses are represented in the invaluable June-July 1977
issue of the magazine. North Carolina's most cogent verbal
response appeared in the following statement:

The 4-H Mission in North Carolina

1. The goal of 4-H is to assist youth in meeting the
basic needs, developmental tasks, and essential life
skills through planned "learning by doing" expe-
riences. A necessary corollary of the youth devel-
opment goal is the development of volunteers as
individuals and leaders in the 4-H program.

2. 4-H is one of four educational programs of the
North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service involv-
ing youth and adults. 4-H is:

a. informal and out of school,

b. community based and locally determined,

c. primarily group focused and family oriented,

d. volunteer operated, and

e. supervised by professional staff.

3. 4-H uses knowledge as a means of meeting basic
and developmental needs and acquiring essential
life skills.

a. 4-H emphasizes subject matter related projects
and activities using extension and land-grant
university resources.

b. 4-H structures the learning environment using
knowledge from the social and behavioral scien-
ces and the humanities to promote the acquisi-
tion of life skills.

282

c. The mix of subject matter and educational
methods in a democratic environment provides
for the personal development process.

4. 4-H is operated by volunteers under the supervision
of a professional extension staff.

a. Some volunteers use subject matter as their orienta-
tion to interacting with youth and adults in 4-H.

b. Other volunteers structure groups and learning
experiences for youth using the social and be-
havioral sciences.

c. And, other volunteers render services in support
of individual 4-H'ers and the 4-H Program in
general.

d. Professional extension staff members teach volun-
teers to use subject matter, educational methods,
and the democratic process to achieve human
development objectives.

5. 4-H is publicly supported by county, state, and fed-
eral governments. Private resources, both human
and material, are used to enrich the learning expe-
riences of youth and adults.

In the assigned responsibilities given to new state 4-H spe-
cialists may be seen the finer cultivation of the clover program's
active mission in North Carolina. Since 1981 David Weather-
ford has had charge of staff development as well as program
evaluation and accountability. He came to Raleigh for ad-
vanced study from the Extension fields of his native Georgia.
1983 brought to Ricks Hall from Union County the outstanding
Sharon Runion to focus on 4-H and youth curriculum develop-
ment statewide. To replace Del Bachert in camping came
Roland Flory, a native of Kansas who had been an agent in
Alamance County. To enrich the 4-H participation in EFNEP is
the job of Ann Y. Frazier; a former Cleveland and Montgomery
agent, she has been shaping the nutritional awareness of Tar
Heel youth for several years in a temporary position. At Greens-
boro, where Henry Revell, Jr. now supervises the A&T 4-H staff
and helps coordinate the program, the newest specialist is
Sheilda McDowell. Her work is with the choicest seeds of all,
those young boys and girls and their parents who are 4-H
partners in learning.

These partners in learning teach us the blessings of Tar

283

Weatherford Runion

Flory

Frazier

McDowell

Heel 4-H wintertime. The younger partners
will be among the 4-H'ers of next season and
the next. The older partners, the parents, will
join the indispensable ranks of 4-H volunteers.
Many will eventually take their places in the
Achievement Hall in 4-H Leadership which
Honor Club has been busy establishing in co-
operation with the state 4-H staff. It is clear
that clover and the clover program are peren-
nials. The 75th anniversary of 4-H and its
forerunners in North Carolina produced many special oppor-
tunities for the deep appreciation of this fact in 1984. Two
deserve parting elaboration. Early this year Dr. Donald Stormer
resigned as State 4-H Leader in order to become USDA's Deputy
Administrator for 4-H and Youth. He is the only club leader in
this state's history to be named National 4-H Leader. Best
wishes, Sir. Acting as leader here during the search for
Stormer's successor, senior 4-H staffer W. M. (Bill) Garmon has
now passed the office to Dr. Dalton R. Proctor, North Carolina's
fifth State 4-H Leader. As Specialist in Charge for a number of
years, his duties have included the operation of State 4-H
Congress. It was during the Monday evening program of this
anniversary Congress that the other perennial proof of 4-H
became evident. A Wilson County girl with champion beef
records was tapped into Honor Club. Her daddy, Fred Bass, Jr.,
an Honor Club member since 1959, brought Kristina to the
Scott Pavilion stage. In the audience sat her smiling grand-
daddy; he had been initiated into this old service organization
himself exactly 50 years ago. Three honored generations of the
same family and three-quarters of a century of club history tell
us that there is a fourth generation ahead, that in only 25 more
years Kristina Bass's child will make its own granddaddy
proud too. 4-H, like the seasons, happens all over again.

284

Volunteers in state convention at McKimmon-training to serve.

285

INDEX

A & T (North Carolina Agricultural and
Technical College): 4, 13, 37, 99. See also
Short course for Negro youth

Achievement Hall in 4-H Leadership: 284

Adams, Thomas: 160

Adams, Wayne: 251

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA): 147,
153

Agricultural Clubs: first state-level officers
in North Carolina are elected and pic-
tured, 74; organization, 42-53; plan for
county work with clubs is distributed in
1920 by state club supervisor, 70-72; song,
57; staff leadership, 36, 41, 50; to be com-
bined with Home Economics Clubs to be-
come 4-H, 110. See alsu Club activities;
Corn Clubs

Agricultural Clubs, membership: in 1916,
37; in 1919, 51; in 1920, 77; in 1921, 77-78; in
1922, 84; in 1923, 93; in 1924, 103, in post
World War I years declines, 68

Agricultural Fairs: are upgraded and offer
opportunities for club members, 39, 53

Agriculture fur Beginners (Hill): quoted, 1,
29, 107

Ahoskie. See Hertford County

Alamance County: 20, 76, 85, 100, 120, 127,
144, 147, 150, 184, 193, 203, 213, 214, 268,
283; club picnic in 1914, pictured, 32; first
local club leader in North Carolina, 46

Alden, Jane: 203

Alexander County: 52, 196

Alexander, Miss (Davidson County): 76

Alleghany County: 16

Allen, J. Edward: 55, 56

Ammons, C. R.: "The Demonstration Way,"
quoted, 181

Amundson, Geneva: 101

Anderson, Ken: 23; article by, quoted, 255-256

Andrews, Beth: 114

Anita-Alta Outpost 4-H Camp: 271

Anniversaries of agricultural youth pro-
grams and of Cooperative Extension Serv-
ice are celebrated: 188-189

Anniversary, golden, in 1959 of organized
club work in North Carolina: 245, 247-250;
celebration activity, pictured, 249

Anson County: 35, 44, 62, 93, 100, 155, 176,
177, 178, 196, 203, 204, 213, 214

Anthony, J. C: 47, 51, 52

Arey, John: 178

Artz, J. W.: 114

Ashe County: 215

Avery County: 72, 87, 88, 89, 182

A ycock, Charles B.: improves public schools,
6-7

Aycock, Edmund: 139, 204; quoted, 128; pic-
tured, 139

B

Bachert, Del: 272, 283; pictured, 272

Bailey, Heath: 161

Bailey, Linda: 95

Bain, Grady: 196

Balcomb, Mrs. E. E.: 58

Ballinger, Emily: iii

Banks, Dorothy: 178,205

Banks, Frances: 212-213; pictured, 212

Barbee, Lyda Mae: 151-152

Barber, Eleanor (later Eleanor Barber

Davis): 231; pictured, 235
Barnes, Johnnie Faye: 195
Bason, J. W.: 52, 53
Bass, Fred, Jr.: 284
Bass, Kristina: 284
Bates, William: pictured, 249
Beattie, Grier: 144

Beaufort County: 83, 99, 118, 149, 184
B< ck, Dora: 53, 54
Bell, Lottie: 53
Bennett, Inez: 160
Benson, Ezra Taft: 26,
Benson, O. H.: 17; 4-H emblem, 24, 25
Berryhill, Eugene: 194
Bertie County: 57, 149, 154
Bickett, Thomas W.: 39
Biltmore Camp: activity in, pictured, 29
Black, Chester: 14, 15, 268; pictured, 15
Black, J. C: 54

Bladen County: 16, 86, 93, 117
Blake, Elaine: 260
Blake, Lucy: 127
Blake, Mary: 119
Blalock, T. Carlton: 15, 265, 266, 268, 274;

pictured, 15
Bowling, Mabel: 139
Bradford, John: 118, 151, 153, 202; pictured,

118
Branford, Helen: 245, 268; pictured, 251
Braswell, Ada: 178; pictured, 177
Brawley, Price: 150

287

Britt, Lois: 251

Brooks, E. C. (president of North Carolina
State College): 112, 114

Brooks, Boyce: 17, 127, 128, 133-135, 139,
203; pictured, 127, 134, 139

Brown(professor, director of music at North
Carolina College for Women): 67

Brown, G. R.: 40

Brown, John Alton: 124

Brown, Norman: 279

Browne, Henry T.: pictured, 2

Browne, T. E.: 36-37, 38, 39, 42, 46, 89;
becomes supervisor of vocational educa-
tion in North Carolina public schools, 41;
pictured, 2, 31; promotes organization of
Agricultural Club members into commun-
ity clubs, 43, 44, 49, 50; quoted, 31-32

Bryan, Rose Ellwood: 189

Bryant, Roosevelt: 193

Buchanan, Fannie R.: 58, 121, 122

Buffaloe, Otis: 214

Bullard, Thelma: 105

Bullock, Magnolia: 177

Bulwinkle, A. L.: 80

Buncombe County: 51, 72, 73, 87, 88, 93, 97,
100, 109, 117, 138, 152, 263, 271; activity in,
pictured, 29; girls in 1930, pictured, 130

Bunn, Louise: pictured, 179

Burke County: 271

Burnette, David: 271; pictured, 272

Burrows, Mrs. S. J.: 54

Cabarrus County: 52, 100

Caldwell, Daisy: 152

Caldwell County: 184, 271

Camden County: 196

Cameron, J. W.: 44

Camp Vail. See Leadership Training School
at Camp Vail

Camping: 10, 99-100, 120-121, 126, 133, 150,
184, 203, 204; affects attendance for Short
Course, 63-64; first club camping for Negro
members, 99 ;first club camping including
schedule of activities and names of youth
present, 53-57; first used as motivation for
members to meet club requirements, 79; in
1920, 73, 75-76; in 1921, 79; in 1922, 85; in
1926, 117; in 1930, 131; in 1934, 148; in 1936
for Negro youth, 154; interrupted 1942-
1945, 208-209; promoted for counties, 91,
92; schedule for 1947, 225-226; statistics
for 1978, 277

Camps, 4-H. See names of each camp: Anita-
Alta; Millstone; Mitchell, Penn; Roanoke

Island; Schaub; Sertoma; Swannanoa;
White Lake

Candlelighting ceremony: 122, 128, 136-137,
150

"Canning and Preserving with 4-H Recipes"
(1916, 1917, 1918): 33-34

Canning Clubs: begin, 19; expand to full
range of homemaking activities, 75; first
ones in North Carolina formed, 24; first
school in nation for agents and leaders of,
23-25; members invited to Short Course,
63; membership in 1915, 37; membership
in 1919 of Negro girls, 37-38; Negro mem-
bers in 1919, pictured, 38; organization is
compared to organization of Agricultural
Club, 45-46; organized by 1912, 20; use of
4-H brand by, 33-35. See also Home Eco-
nomics Clubs

Canning demonstration, pictured: 105

Capper-Ketcham Act: 122

Carpenter, Bill: iii

Carter, G. L., Jr.: 251; pictured, 251

Carter, Oliver: 37

Cartier, Walter T.: 121, 122

Cash, Tom: 196, 199

Cashwell, Marie: 101

Catawba County: 20, 42, 49, 51, 61, 78, 80, 87,
88, 93, 101, 119, 120, 128, 223, 268, 275;
boys in 1923 with Jersey cows and calves,
pictured, 88

Century HI Committee recommendations:
279-282

Certificates of merit promoted: 91-92

Chambers, C. L.: 47

Chatham County: 203

Cherry, R.Gregg: 217, 219

Chesney, Clyde: 270, 275; pictured, 269

Chowan County: 52

Christensen, Janice: 274

Clark, Catherine: 93-95

Clark, Elton: 178

Clark, Margaret: 213, 233, 234, 250, 251-254,
270; pictured, 236

Clay County: 161

Clement, Annie L. Rankin: 24, 53, 57, 88, 109

Cleveland County: 80, 87, 104, 120, 124, 152,
155, 160, 162, 163, 176, 184, 283

Cline, George: 88

Club activities: in 1920, 70-77; in 1921, 78-82;
in 1922, 82-89; in 1923, 93-96; in 1924, 97-
103; in 1925, 104-105. See also 4-H activities

Coggin, Roy: 155

Cole, George: 41

Cole, Lillian: 76

Coleman, Ruth: 127; pictured, 127

288

Collegiate 4-H club activity: 119, 182, 204-
206, 231, 234, 274

Collins, E. R.: 265

Columbus County: 38, 86, 212, 260

Community-based 4-H clubs: transition from
school-based to, 254-265

Community club organization for adults as
well as youth is promoted: 59-61

"Community 4-H Clubs in North Carolina";
261

Compulsory school attendance in operation:
7

Connell, W. A.: 54

Conoley, Neal: 270, 271; pictured, 269

Coolidge, Calvin: 101

Cooper, Shelby: 144

Cooper, W. C. "Bill": iii, 214-215, 246, 267,
270, 275, 278; pictured, 215

Cooperative Extension Service: oversees
operation of 4-H, 13-14, 15

Cooperative Farm Demonstration work be-
gins in North Carolina: 4

Copeland, Harland: 264

Corn Clubs: 3, 21, 25, 37, 68-70; become
responsibility of North Carolina State
College, 19; champions, early, 20; charter
members of 1909 Corn Club gather in
1955, pictured, 2; charter members of 1909
Corn Club gather in 1955 to dedicate his-
torical marker, 244-245; first official Corn
Club in North Carolina is organized, 19;
first North Carolina agent for, 18; members
invited to send exhibits to Texas State
Fair, 39; membership in 1914 and 1915, 46;
membership in 1915, 36. See also Agricul-
tural Clubs

Cornelius, Elizabeth: 114, 123-124, 133, 135,
139, 141, 146; pictured, 134

Cotton Clubs: 51

Counties: listed with membership statistics
for 1952, 238-241; on 1947 camping sched-
ule, listed, 225-226; with white farm and
home agents and Negro farm agents in
1920, listed, 77. See also names of individ-
ual counties

County club council advocated: 91

Covington, Dewey: 184

Cox, Florence: 114

Coxe, Agnes: 205

Craig, Locke: 21

Cranford, Mary Louise (Mrs. W. B. Nesbitt):
270, 275; pictured, 269

Craven County: 87, 102, 117, 120, 162, 193,
215, 221

Craver, Joe: 121

Creesman, Helen: 93; pictured, 94

Creighton, Martha: 76, 77, 117, 138

Culp, Max: 132, 143, 152, 184; pictured, 145

Cumberland County: 80, 87, 89, 105, 115.

155, 178, 222
Current,Ruth:132,146-149passim, 151,152,

155, 163, 182; pictured, 147, 205
Cuthbertson, Raphael: 236

D

Dail, Christine: 148

Dare County: 211, 219, 225, 260

Davidson County: 52, 61-62, 76, 121, 123,
161, 231; selected in 1926 as a demonstra-
tion in organizing 4-H, 114, 115

Davis, Carney: 161

Davis, Eddie: pictured, 255

Davis, J. Boyd: 231

Day, Otis: 150

Dean, Mrs. Spencer: 184

Dearmon, Mark: 16, 274

Deck, Guy: 189

DeLorme, Roger: 230

Demonstration contests: at district level are
begun for boys, 97; at district level are
begun for girls, 95-96; first held at North
Carohna State Fair in 1921, 80-81; first
national one is held in 1922, 81; in the 1922
North Carolina State Fair, detailed infor-
mation about, 86-89

"The Demonstration Way" (poem by C. R.
Ammons): quoted, 181

Dickerson, Lou Ella: 179, 183

Dixon, Lyman: iii, 233, 234, 265, 270, 271;
pictured, 221, 236

Dixon, Troy: 184

Doctor, Kenneth: 271

Dukes, 0.0. : 114

Duncan, Vernon: 203

Duplin County: 17, 102, 127, 139, 148, 251

Durham County: 42, 66, 87, 124, 139, 147,
148, 150, 155, 177, 178, 193, 208, 222; club
outing in 1915, pictured, 33; members and
leaders in poultry, pictured, 39

E

Early, Lena: 132, 139; pictured, 145
Eatman, Frank: 198

Edgecombe County: 20, 102, 177, 232, 270
Edwards, Albert: 250; pictured, 255
Edwards, Cleo Jones: iii 268, 270, 275;

pictured, 264
Edwards, Mildred: 183
EFNEP: 268, 269, 277, 283

289

Electric Congress: 228-229; banquet, pictured,
228

Elliott, Louise: 133, 139; pictured, 134

Ellis, Margaret: 222

Ellis, Rudolph: 222

Elon College: site of second annual state
short course for girls: 76

Eure, Thad: 203; pictured, 13

Evans, Edna: 114

Evans, Otis: 193

Extension Farm News (EFN): is begun, 31;
quoted, 218-219, 220-221; series of articles
by State Club Agent Kirby appears in, 90-
93; suspends publication temporarily, 81

Facts (North Carolina Research Institute):
July 4, 1953, issue quoted: 237-244

Falls, G.W.: 114

Farm Maker's Clubs: 37, 51, 74-75

Farmers' Institute: 4, 5, 19

Farwell, Jane: 219, 223

Feaster, Thelma: 270, 275; pictured, 270

"Feed a Fighter": 206-208, 209

Ferguson, J. C: 228

Fitz, Gwendolyn: 267-268; pictured, 264

Flory, Roland: 283; pictured, 284

Flowers canner: 23, 24, 25; pictured, 23

Forbes, Esley Hope: 145

Forsyth County: 44

Foster, Robert G.: 126

4-H Achievement Days: North Carolina's
first, 122

4-H activities: in 1926, 110-118; in 1927, 118-
120; in 1928, 120-123; in 1929, 123-129; in
1930, 129-132; in 1931, 133-143; in 1932,
143-146; in 1933, 146-148; in 1934, 148-151;
in 1935, 151-153; in 1936, 153-163; in 1937,
176-182; in 1938, 182-187; in 1939, 187-196;
in 1940, 202-204; in 1941, 204; in 1942-1944,
206-213, 215; in 1945, 215-217; in 1946, 218-
223; in 1947, 223-229; in 1948, 229-230; in
1949, 231-232; in 1950-1952, 233-244; in
1960, 259-261; in 1961, 261-263; in 1962,
263-265; in 1983, 16. See also Club activities

4-H Brand: 26, 34, 37; pictured, 23

4-H Church Sunday: 193; services, pictured,
188

"4-H Club Leaders Handbook" (Harrill):
143, 222; quoted, 223

4-H emblem: 17, 23-28, 31, 32, 59, 71, 72, 103,
136-137

4-H historical collection is established: 273

4-H membership: age limits, 8; grows during
World War II, 209-210; in 1926, 117; in

1929, 123; in 1930, 129; in 1931, 133, 143, in
1934, 148; in 1935, 151; in 1936, 163; in
1937, 163-164, 170, 172, 173; in 1938, 187; in
1939, 189; in 1940-1945, 210; in 1946, 226;
in 1947, 226-227; in 1952 leads nation, 237,
242-243; in 1952 listed by counties, 238-
241; in 1959, 245; in 1974, 269, in 1978, 277

4-H Mirror, is begun, 193

"4-H Mission in North Carolina," a 1977
statement: 282-283

4-H motto: 7-8, 17,28

4-H name: 25-26, 32, 37, 103

4-H organization, agencies that oversee
operation of: 13-14

4-H organization and name officially app-
lied to Home Economics Clubs for girls in
North Carohna: 123-124

4-H organization and name to be applied
statewide: 110-112, 113-116, 117-118, 121

4-H pin: 90, 105

4-H pledge: 26-27, 118, 189

4-H projects listed: in 1937, 165-169, 174-175;
in 1947, 227; in 1952, 244; in 1978, 277

4-H slogan: 7

4-H state constitution: 135, 268

4-H Story (Reck): 23,278

4-H uniform: 135-137, 177, 250, 278; girls',
pictured, 252

Fox, John: 189

Foyles, Marvin: 161

Frances, Jessie: 177, 193

Frazier, Ann Y.: 283; pictured, 284

Funding and sponsors for activities for club
members: 14, 41, 69, 79-80, 81, 93, 95, 100,
120, 122, 125, 145, 146, 147-148, 150-151,
154, 161-162, 181, 182-183, 194, 195, 196,
208, 215, 223, 235-236, 246, 248, 271. See
also North Carolina 4-H Development
Fund

G

Gainey, Elizabeth: 178

Gainey, Sarah Amelia: 178

Gaither, E. W.: 114

Gardner, Ella: 121, 122, 126, 131

Gardner, O. Max: 131, 208-209

Garmon, W. M.: 269, 270, 284; pictured, 269

Gash, Margaret: 95

Gaston County: 79-80, 83, 87, 144, 145, 150-

151, 189
Gates County: 20, 154, 183
Geer, Vera: 149

General Education Board: 4, 18, 21, 24
Giles, Jesse: 223
Goodman, John: 124, 125

290

Goodman, Mrs. (wife of Presbyterian minis-
ter in Hawfields): first local club leader in
North Carolina, 46

Goodman, Murray: 251

Goodman, R. D.: 52

Graeber, R. W.: 120, 155

Graham, P^rank Porter: 149

Graham, Jim: 185

Graham, Mrs. Charles: 248

Graham County: 72, 251

Grain Clubs: 39

Granville County: 20, 52

Gray, James M.: 102-103, 104, 122-123, 196,
197, 232; pictured, 102

Greene, Charlotte Hilton; quoted, 185-187

Greene, John: 193

Greene, Margaret: 155

Greene County: 76-77

Greenway, Clyde: 215, 216

Griggs, Eunice: 155

Groff, Judy M.: 275; pictured, 275

Guilford County: 20, 24, 25, 183, 207, 223

H

Halifax County: 52, 102, 120, 177, 193, 214,
223

Hall, B. A.: 193

Hall, Dudley: 46

Hall, L. E.: 38, 46, 58, 74-75, 77-78, 128

Hall, Ledford: 46

Harnett County: 41, 52, 88, 181, 271, 275;
activity in, pictured, 16

Harrill, Julia Anne: is born in 1933, 148

Harrill, Leary Rhinehart: 17, 21-22, 88, 97,
118, 120-124 passim, 128, 132-139 passim,
143, 147, 148, 149, 154-164 passim, 178,
182, 183, 189, 194, 196, 197, 198, 202, 207,
208, 218, 221-222, 247, 250, 256; begins as
first state 4-H leader in North Carolina,
108-110; biographical information, 109-
110; dies and memorial fund is estab-
lished, 273-274; "4-H Club Leaders Hand-
book," 143, 222-223; goes to Austria, 232;
"History and Summary of Thirty Years of
4-H Club Work in North Carolina, 1909-
1939," quoted, 191-192; Images of 4-H, 22;
is honored in 1957 by The Progressive
Farmer, 258; marries, 142; Memories of 4-
H, 22; "The Parents' Part in 4-H Club
Work," 164; pictured, 2, 22, 119, 131, 134,
205, 212, 221 , 235, 247, 249; "Programs and
Materials for Leaders in Home, Commun-
ity, and Club Recreation," 153; quoted on
community-based 4-H clubs, 254-255; re-
tires and scholarship fund is established

to honor, 265; "singing in the rain," 142; to
combine Agricultural Clubs and Home
p]conomics (,'lubs for girls into statewide
4-H program, 1 10-118 passim, 121

Harris, Gwendolyn: 230

Harris, Selma: 143

Harrison, Carrie; author of national 1-11
motto, 8, 17

Hatch Act of 1887: 4

Hayes, LeFoy: 193

Haywood County: 152

Helms, Mike: pictured, 12

Henderson County: 72, 125

Hendricks, J. W.: 78, 88, 101; pictured, 88

Henley, Mattie: 54, 61

Herring, George W.: 37, 143

Herring, Sallie: 100-101

Hertford County: 20, 36, 57, 76-77, 100, 118.
121, 154, 193, 223; activity in, pictured,
121; charter members of 1909 Corn Club
gather in Ahoskie in 1955 to dedicate his-
torical marker, 244-245; charter members
of 1909 Corn Club gather in 1955, pictured,
2; first official corn Club in North Carol-
ina is organized in 1909 in Ahoskie, 19

Hicks, Bill: 66

Hill, Daniel Harvey: \^; Agriculture for Begin-
ners, quoted, 1, 29, 107

Hill, E. C: pictured, 2

Hill, George Watts: 147

Hill, I. W.: 17, 42, 47, 92, 112, 114, 126, 135;
pictured, 134

"History and Summarv of Thirty Years of
4-H Club Work in North Carolina, 1909-
1939" (Harrill): quoted, 191-192

Hodges, Luther: 247, 256

Hoey, Clyde R.: 184, 189,219

Hoffman, Arnold: 249

Holler, Dan F.: iii, 202, 233, 235, 250, 261,
270, 271; pictured, 236

Hollingsworth, E. T.: 85

Holmes, J. S.: 199

Holtzman children (Warren County): 251

Home Economics Clubs: get off to a good
start, 45-46; mentioned, 21; official club
uniform for girls is begun, 104; officially
called 4-H, 123-124; program of Canning
Clubs expands in 1920 to full range of
homemaking activities, 75; projects in
1919, 62-63; songs, 58; to be combined with
Agricultural Clubs to become 4-H, 1 10. Set'
also Canning Clubs, Club activities

Home Economics Clubs, membership: de-
clines as number of staff declines, (^i^; in
1919, 62; in 1920, 77; in 1921, 77; in 1922,
84; in 1923, 93; in 1924, 103

291

Honor Club: 17, 135, 137-141, 145, 184, 231,
268, 273-274, 284; constitution of, 140-
141; inductees in 1955, pictured, 253

Hudgins, William: 183

Hudson, Cassius R.: 4-5, 19, 57, 102, 202, 207;
pictured, 5

Huggins, Evelyn: 104-105

Hunt, James B., Jr.: 274

Hunter, Anna: 245

Hunter, Miss Willie: 144, 149

Hurst, Emma Lou: 204

Hutaff, George: 93

Hyatt, George, Jr.: 268

I

IFYE: 229-230, 236, 275; activity in, pictured,

229
Images of 4-H: 22, 250
Integration and 4-H: 247, 254, 256-258,

266-267
International Livestock Exposition: 80, 94-

95, 101
Iredell County: 5, 102, 117, 132, 139, 143, 144,

147, 150, 151, 152, 161, 177, 178, 183, 184,

213, 234, 251, 260, 267, 275
Irwin, Clyde: 219
Ives, Mildred: 121, 149, 152
Ivey, Carolyn Smith: 275

Jackson, Olive: 133, 139; pictured, 134

Jackson, W. P.: 163

Jackson children (Sampson County): 237

Jackson County: 72, 76, 124, 183, 195

James, C. W.: 85

James, Jesse: 231; pictured, 232

James, Vernon: 128, 139; pictured, 139

Jamison, Minnie L.: 37, 61

Jeffries, Annie: 193

Jeffries, Harlow: 193

Jeffries, J. W.: 202, 214; pictured, 203

Johnson, Elizabeth: 149

Johnson, Jesse: 124

Johnston County: 70, 83, 100, 124, 149, 160,

161, 162, 182, 206, 213, 223, 234, 254;

member, pictured, 204
Jones, Cleo (later Cleo Jones Edwards): iii,

268, 270, 275; pictured, 264
Jones, F. A.: 222
Jones, Geraldine: 230
Jones, Idell: 231; pictured, 232
Jones, Julia: 139
Jones, O. B.: 125

Jones, R. E.: 162, 163, 177, 193, 202, 214, 221,

266; pictured, 161
Jones, Stanly: 178
Jones County: 152, 182, 205, 260
Joyner, J. Y.: 7, 20
Judging contest: pictured, 107; to be included

in summer camps, 91
"Judging Livestock and Poultry": 89

K

Keller, Myrtie: 135

Kelly, Fern: 261

Kelly, Rufus: 230

Kennett, Lucille: 24, 25

Kennett, Nell: 196; pictured, 249

Kerns, Dermont: 93-94

Kerr, Jean: 149

Kiker, Viola: 93

Kilgore, B. W.: 39, 102

Kimrey, A. C: 178

Kingston, Opal: 189

Kinton, Jill: pictured, 12

Kinton girls (Harnett County): 275

Kirby, S. J.: 51, 70, 84, 90-93, 96, 97-98, 99,

102, 103; biographical information, 83, 84;

dies, 163; mentioned, 54; pictured, 83
Klugerman, Ira: 268
Knapp, Jack: 131

Knapp, Seaman A.: 17, 18, 19, 36, 57
Knowles, Abner: pictured, 205

Land grant colleges are authorized: 3, 4

Latham, D. L.: 52

Laughinghouse, Charles O'H.: 127

Laughinghouse, Margarette: pictured, 267

Lawrence, R. E.: 52

Lawrence, Rebecca: 77

Leadership Training School at Camp Vail,
Massachusetts: 117, 118-119, 128, 132

Leagans, Paul: 222

Leland, Wendy: 16

Lenoir County: 132, 142-143, 152, 161, 248

Lever, Asbury Francis: 202

Lewis, Charles F. "Pete": 270, 271; pictured,
272

Liles, Richard: 270, 271, 275; pictured, 270

Lincoln, President Abraham: 3

Lincoln County: 52, 62, 75, 101; camp proj-
ect, pictured, 42

Livingston, Mamie: 95

Lloyd, Dorothy: 148

Lockamy, Minson: 101

292

Love, Bunyon: 93, 101

Lowder, Jean: 155

Lowe, Mrs. D. F.: 129, 143, 150, 162, 187;

pictured, 129
Lucas, Laura Louise: 208
Lutz, Floyd E.: 80
Lutz, Frank: 88
Lutz, Philip: 128

M

McAdams, Charles: 205

McAuley, David: 275

McAuley children (Iredell County): 275

McAuliffe, Joseph: 260, 265

McCachern, Geneva: 126

McCaskill children (Moore County): 275

McComb, Vinnie Lee: 128

McCrary, O. F.: 155

McCullough, George: 154, 155, 199

McDonald, C. H.: 42

McDonald, Pollyanna: pictured, 229

McDowell, John: 194

McDowell, Sheilda: 283; pictured, 284

McDowell County: 183

MacGregor, Frances; 160, 163, 178, 182, 189,
190, 195, 213, 232; pictured, 179, 205

Mclnnes, Mrs. (Wake County): 116

McKimmon, Jane S.: 24, 33-35, 44, 50, 88,
103, 112, 123, 189; early work of, 20-22; first
North Carolina Home Demonstration
Agent, 19; initiates short course for girls,
67; is appointed State Director of Home
Economics, 39-40; is made honorary char-
ter member of 4-H HonorClub, 139; partic-
ipates in second annual short course for
girls, 76; pictured, 18; receives service
award, 163; resigns as State Home Agent,
163; retires, 219; When We're Green We
Grow, 19, 164; works with Canning Club,
32-35, 37, 38

McKimmon, Jane S., Continuing Education
Center: 257; activities and exhibits in, pic-
tured, 9, 14; pictured, 259

McKimmon, Jane S., Loan Fund: 122, 152,
183, 248

McKinney, Thearon: 275; pictured, 275

McLean, Angus W.: 108

McMillian, Ellen: 155

McNeely, R. R.: 251, 260; pictured, 251

McVean, J. D.: 35, 36

Mack, Leslie: 150

Macon County: 204, 220-221

Madison County: 20; girls in 1930, pictured,
130

Madison Sqaure Garden Poultry Show: 93,

120

Mallard, Macy: iv

Marsh, Paul: 264, 265

Martin, Howard: 161

Martin, O. B.: 17, 18,25

Martin County: 37

Mask, Homer B.: 42, 49-53 passim, 61, 7(J-72,
77-79,82, 123, 152

Mason, R. H.: 41

Mason, Ruth King: 183

Mayo, Selz: 264

Meadows, Brent: 178

Meadows, Herman: 74; pictured, 74

Mecklenburg County: 20, 35, 76, 77, 152, 194,
203, 231, 234, 260; activity in 1940, pic-
tured, 209; member, pictured, 249

Memories of 4-H (Harrill): 22; quoted, 248

Metcalf, Z. P.: 155

Miller, Clyde: 177

Miller, Doris: 95

Miller, J. F.: 104

Miller, P. D.: 193

Miller, Paul: 252-254

Miller, U. A.: 52

Millsaps, E. S., Jr.: 78, 95

Millstone 4-H Camp: 195, 196-199, 225; activ-
ity in, pictured, 9, 194, 198

Minorities, racial: 21, 37-38, 102, 108, 150,
151-152, 162, 177, 187, 193, 234-236, 245-
246, 266-268; canners, pictured, 38; dairy
show in 1945, pictured, 218; first club
camping for, 99; first Wildlife and Con-
servation Camp for, 202; in 1919, 51-52; in
1920, 74-75; in 1942, 215; in 1948 and 1949,
230-231; pictured at A & T, 189; place
exhibit at 1946 State P'air, 223; Rowan
County 4-H council officers in 1940, pic-
tured, 211. See also A & T; P'arm Makers'
Clubs; Short course for Negro youth; and
names of individuals

Minorities, racial, club membership: in 1917,
38; in 1920, 77; in 1921, 77-78; in 1924, 103;
in 1931, 143; in 1936, 162; in 1940-1945,
210, 211; in 1950, 234; in 1952 is analyzed,
238-243; in 1958,245

Mitchell, John W.: 129, 143, 150, 162, 202.
214, 236; pictured, 129

Mitchell County: 271

Mitchell 4-H Camp: 235-236, 275; pictured,
iii, 246

Mock, Kathleen: 121, 139

Monroe, Flora: 95

Montgomery County: 283

Moore, J. Raynor: pictured, 2

293

Moore, Pauline: 267, 270, 275; pictured, 264

Moore, Susan: 230

Moore County: 20, 83-84, 275

Morrill Act: 3, 4

Morris, Cornelia: 67

Morris, Tom: 216

Morrison, Cameron: 86, 161

Morrison, Flora: 83-84

Morrison, Ray: 161

Morse, T.W.: 199

Moser, Mary Sue: iii, 231, 233, 250, 251, 270;

pictured, 232
Moses, J. E.: 47,51

Mr. 4-H. See Harrill, Leary Rhinehart
"Mulligan Stew": 268
Musser, Charles: 233
Myers, Carol: pictured, 13

N

Nance, Miriam: pictured, 12

Nash County: 208, 212, 251

National Club Camp: 122, 128, 147, 194;
becomes National Conference in 1957,
245; first North Carolina delegates to, 118;
first North Carolina delegates to, pictured,
119; North Carolina delegates participate
in 1931, 133-135; North Carolina delegates
to 1931, pictured, 134; North Carolina
delegates to 1938, pictured, 179

National Club Congress: in 1923, 94-95; in
1924, 101; in 1927, 120; in 1932, 146; in
1933, 148; in 1934, 149; in 1935, 151; in
1936, 155; in 1937, 178; in 1938, 183; in
1939, 195; in 1940, 203; in 1941, 204; in
1942, 208; in 1943, 208; in 1983, 16

National Dairy Show: in 1937, 178; in 1938,
184; in 1939, 194; in 1940, 203

National 4-H Achievement Day: 143, 148

National 4-H Club Week: 216-217; window
exhibit, pictured, 220

National 4-H News, June-July, 1977, issue:
282; quoted, 255-256

National 4-H Song Book: 58

Neely, lona: iii

Negroes. See Minorities, racial

Nelson, Emmie: 263

Nesbitt, Mrs. W. B. (Mary Louise Cranford):
270, 275; pictured, 269

New Hanover County: 87, 93, 206; members
at 1923 State Fair, pictured, 92

News and Observer (Raleigh): quoted, 136-137

Newsome, Troy: pictured, 2

Nichols, Owen: 42, 66

Nichols, Quinten: 150

Nicholson, Carmen: 183

Niederfrank, E. J.: 261

Noble, G. L.: 81

Noble, Richard: 74; pictured, 74

Noblitt, Doris: 183

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical
College (A & T): 4, 13, 37, 99. See also Short
course for Negro youth

North Carolina Agricultural Extension
Service: 13, 282

North Carolina College for Women: site of
first collegiate 4-H club in North Carolina,
119; site of first short course for girls, 67

North Carolina Department of Agriculture:
is established, 3; begins Farmers' Insti-
tute, 4

North Carolina 4-H Club Week (formerly
Short Course): change in name to, 20, 218;
in 1946, 218-219; in 1948 is cancelled, 230;
in 1949, 231; in 1950, 233, 234; in 1950,
activity is pictured, 234; in 1959 is celebra-
tion of fifty years of organized club work
in North Carolina, 245, 247-250; in 1962,
event is pictured, 255; in 1965 is inte-
grated, 267; in 1968, speaker Jesse Owens
is pictured, 266; in 1975 is North Carolina
4-H Congress, 273. See also Short Course

North Carolina 4-H Club Week for Negroes
(formerly Short course for Negro youth):
in 1950, 234. See also short course for
Negro youth

North Carolina 4-H Congress (formerly
North Carolina 4-H Club Week): 16, 20,
273; activity of 1977 delegates, pictured,
14. See also North Carolina 4-H Club
Week

North Carolina 4-H Development Fund: 14,
247-248, 260, 265, 268

North Carolina 4-H Foundation: 234-236,
248

North Carolina Research Institute: Facts,
quoted, 237-244

North Carolina State College of Agriculture
and Mechanic Arts, Raleigh: declines to
participate in Federal Cooperative Farm
Demonstration Work, 4; Department of
Agriculture Extension is described, 21;
designates its first professor of Agricultur-
al Extension, 18; develops cooperative
relationship with Farmers' Institute and
assumes responsibility for Corn Club
work, 19; is opened, 3; McKimmon Con-
tinuing Education Center, see McKim-
mon, Jane S., Continuing Education Cen-
ter; Ricks Hall, 82; site of Short Courses,
20 {see also Short Course)

North Carolina State Fair: exhibit pictured,

294

33; in 1911 has canning exhibits, 20; in
1915, 32, 33; in 1917 exhibits club commod-
ities, 39; in 1921 has its first club demon-
stration contests, 80-81; in 1922 holds
demonstration contests, details given, 86-
89; in 1922 is called Short Course, 86; in
1923, 95-96; in 1923, activity is pictured,
92; in 1924, 100; in 1925, 108; in 1926 and
1927 not held, 119; in 1928, 122; in 1929,
129; in 1930, 131, 132; in 1931, 142-143; in
1932, 145; in 1934, 150; in 1935, 152-153; in
1936, 160-161; in 1937, 178; in 1939, sched-
uleof 4-H events, 190-191; in 1940, 203-204;
in 1941,204

Northampton County: 52, 57, 61, 84-85, 152,
154, 234

Norton, Lester: 95

O

Odum, Owen; 41

Ogburn, Juanita: 206

Older Rural Youth (formerly Older Youth

Conference and later Young Men and

Women's Organization): 203, 222, 234. See

also Older Youth Conference
Older Youth Conference: in 1 937, 1 77- 1 78; in

1938, 187; in 1939, 195; in 1940 changes

name, 203. See also Older Rural Youth
Oldham, Manly: 74; pictured, 74
Olds, Fred: 132
Oliver, Allen G.: 36, 46, 76, 83, 120, 123, 216;

pictured, 39
Oliver, Hugh: 208
Onslow County: 51, 52, 236
Orange County: 52, 208, 223
Overman, Allison: 70
Owens, Edna: 195
Owens, Jesse: at 1968 North Carolina 4-H

Club Week, pictured, 266

Padgett, Sarah: quoted, 57

"The Parents' Part in 4-H Club Work" (Har-
rill): 164

Parker, Charles: 20; pictured, 2

Parker, Raleigh: pictured, 2

Parker, Rebecca: 254

Parker, T. B.: 4, 5-6, 19

Parker, W. C: 104

Parrish, C. F. "Chick": 215, 216, 279; pic-
tured, 216

Parrish, Dorothy: 193

Parrish, Mrs. Robert: 220

Pasquotank County: 121, 124, 128, 132, 138,

144, 147, 149, 154, 196, 213, 260; member,
pictured, 212; selected in 1926 as a demon-
stration in organizing 4-H, 1 14, 115

Pate, W. v.: 88

Patterson, Mr. (cashier in Bank of Coats,
N.C.):41

Patterson brothers (Rowan County): 101

Paul, Lela: 118; pictured, 119

Paulling, Dixie: 265

PeaceCollege:82, 85, 91

Pearson, Ruby: 213, 231; pictured, 214

Peebles, Herman: 70; pictured, 69

Peele, Aaron: 118, 139, 148; pictured, 119

Peele, Oland: 223; pictured, 179

Pender County: 100, 119; activity in, pic-
tured, 105; members, pictured, 96

Penn, Mrs. (of Chinqua-Penn Plantation):
266

Penn 4-H Camp: 266, 268, 272

Perquimans County: 100, 196

Pershing, John J.: 86

Phillips, Oscar: 132, 194, 231, 233, 251; pic-
tured, 232

Phillips, Ralph: pictured, 204

Pickler, Mary Rose: 149

Pig Clubs. See Agricultural Clubs

Pitt County: 20, 133, 177, 183

Poe, Clarence: 75

Polk County: 72, 117, 132, 133, 215; selected
in 1926 as a demonstration in organizing
4-H, 114, 115

Pollock, Roger: pictured, 179

Potato Clubs. See Agricultural Clubs

Pou, Joe: 178

Poultry Clubs. See Agricultural Clubs

Powell, G. H.: 18

Powell, Mary Emma: 128, 152

Practical skills are emphasized in club work:
8-10

Pressly, Francis: 234

Prevatte, Archie: 193

Proctor, Dalton R.: 270, 271, 273, 284; pic-
tured, 272

Proffit, C. C: 52

"Programs and Materials for Leaders in
Home, Community, and Club Recreation"
(Harrill): 153

Pruette, Eloise: 104-105

Public high school system established: 7

Pullet Chain (poultry): 215-216, 279

R

Radio publicity: 148, 150-153 passim, 182,
230; interview, pictured, 247

295

Raleigh Times: quoted, 142

Randell, Idell Jones: 231; pictured, 232

Randle, Elizabeth, 155; pictured, 179

Randolph County: 93

Rankin, Annie L. (later Annie Rankin Cle-
ment): 24, 53, 57, 88, 109

Rankin, Julia: 20

Raper, Sam: 139; pictured, 139

Raymond, Augusta: 118; pictured, 119

Raymond, Frank: 121

Reck, Franklin M.: The 4-H Story, 23, 278

Redfern, Rosalind: 44, 176, 178, 214

Reece, Edna: 95

Reinhardt, James: 275

Renegar, Elaine: 251

Renegar family (Iredell County): 251

Reno, John: 152

Revell, Henry, Jr.: 270, 283; pictured, 270

Reynolds, Hal: 251, 263; pictured, 251

Richardson, Helen: 177

Richardson, Snyder: 40

Richmond County: 124, 196, 271

Riddick, W. C: 63

Ritchie, Ray: 236

Rizk, Salom: 203

Roanoke Island 4-H Camp: 219, 225, 226,
268; sign, pictured, 221

Robertson, A. K.: 36, 46, 47, 85

Robeson County: 95, 100, 117-118, 184, 193,
213, 223; selected in 1926 as a demonstra-
tion in organizing 4-H, 114, 115

Robinson, Luther and Mildred: donate Anita-
Alta 4-H Outpost Camp, 271

Rockefeller, John D.: 4

Rockingham County: 117

Rodgers, Mrs. W. D., Jr.: 53, 54

Rodgerson, Maude: 100-101

Roosevelt, Eleanor: 151, 195

Rowan County: 46, 95, 101, 196, 213, 250,
251; Negro 4-H council officers in 1940,
pictured, 211

Rowell, N. K.: 52

Royall, Kenneth C: 225

Rubinow, S. G.: 37-42 passim, 46, 53

Ruffner, Robert: 88

Runion, Sharon: 283; pictured, 284

Rutherford County: 52, 73, 149; girls in 1930,
pictured, 130

Rutledge, Lloyd: 259, 264, 265

Safrit, Dale: pictured, 12
Sampson County: 46, 76, 79, 85, 87, 91, 100,
101, 128, 143, 151, 196, 208, 237; first club

for minority boys and girls organized in,

37

Sams, Mr. (agent in Polk County in 1920): 72

Sanford, Terry: 254, 265; pictured, 255

Schaub, Ira Obed: 20-21, 35, 68-69, 102, 108,
131, 141, 164, 189, 204, 218; attends can-
ning schools, 24-25; 4-H camp is named in
his honor, 233; is honored by The Progres-
sive Farmer, 188; is made honorary char-
ter member of 4-H Honor Club, 139; organ-
izes first offical Corn Club in North Caro-
lina and promotes other early club work,
18-19;pictured,2,18,249;r/2eWay/See/<,
18

Schaub, Ira Obed, Loan Fund: is estab-
lished, 183

Schaub 4-H Camp: 233; activity in, pictured,
6; pictured, 246

Scholtz, Lena: 203

Scotland County: 95

Scott, Charles: 196

Scott, Margaret: 37

Scott, W. Kerr: 39, 46, 47, 177; pictured, 207

Sebastian, Dr. (North Carolina A & T staff):
99

Sertoma 4-H Camp: 271-272; activity at, pic-
tured, 273

Service clubs: 162. See also Older Rural
Youth; Older Youth Conference

Shackelford, WilUam: 230, 251

Sharpe, Harold: 205

Sharpe, John: 124

Shay, W. W.: 47

Shearon, Faustina: 145

Shearouse, F. N.: 208

Sheffield, C. A.: 114, 124

Shinn, Erwin H.: 218

Shoffner, Robert W.: 263-264, 268, 270

Short Course: activities in, 66-67; activity
for, pictured, 62; attendance figures for
1915-1919, 63-64; county agents are involv-
ed in, 64-66; first North Carolina state-
level Agricultural Club officers are elected
at, 73-74; held with club girls, 97; in 1917,
41-43; in 1918, 47; in 1919, names of per-
sons assisting in conduct of, 64-66; in 1921
is cancelled, 81; in 1923 is held in connec-
tion with State Fair, 96; in 1923, activity is
pictured, 107; in 1924, 97, 98-99, 100; in
1925, 104; in 1926, 116-117; in 1927, 118; in
1927, activity is pictured, 118; in 1928, 120-
122; in 1929, 126-128; in 1929, first king
and queen of health are pictured, 127; in
1930, 131-132; in 1931, 135-139, 141-142; in
1932, 144-145; in 1934, 149-150; in 1935,

296

cancelled by epidemic of infantile paraly-
sis, 151; in 1936, names of leaders and
instructors in, 156-160; in 19;36, schedule
ofactivities of, 155-160; in 1937, 176-177; in
1938, 184; in 1939, 189; in 1940, 203; in
1941, 204; in World War II years, can-
celled, 208; model curb market, pictured,
185; name changes, 218; requires up-to-
date project records for delegates, 97. See
also North Carolina 4-H Club Week

Short course for girls: in 1 919 first is held, 67;
in 1920, 76; in 1921, 82; in 1922, 85-86; in
1922, activity is pictured, 85; in 1923, 91; in
1924 is held in conjunction with Short
Course for club boys, 97, 101

Short course for Negro youth: in 1924, at
district level, 99; in 1926, 117; in 1934, 150;
in 1935 cancelled by epidemic of infantile
paralysis, 151; in 1936, 162; in 1937, 177; in
1938, 187; in 1939, 193; in 1947, partici-
pants are pictured, 224; in 1949, 231; in
1950 with changed name, 234

Simpson, Henry: 230

Simpson, Louise: 234

Simpson, Pearl: 178

Singletary, Julius: 95

Sloan, Fred: 222

Smarr, W. L.: 52

Smith, C.B.: 15, 16

Smith, Dick: 263, 270; pictured, 264

Smith, F. Stanly: 189

Smith, Lathan: 270, 275; pictured, 275

Smith, Marion: 105

Smith, Oliver: 119

Smith, Thelma: 139, 145-146

Smith, W.H.: 17

Smith, Wayne: 270-271; pictured, 270

Smith-Hughes Act of 1916: 41

Smith-Lever Act: 13, 21, 36, 41, 108

Songs and singing: 84, 105, 121, 128, 137,
144; first club songs, 57, 58-61; led by Mr.
Harrill during rain, 142

Staffat state level: in 1925, 104; in late 1925
and early 1926, 108; in 1937, 163; in 1940,
202; in 1940s, 213-215; 1946-1949, 231; in
1950, 234; in 1950s, 250-251; in 1974, 270-
271; in 1979, 275; in 1984, 283

Staffing: 130, 152, 177; is increased in coun-
ties in 1936, 153; time in 1933 taken up by
AAA, 147

Stanly County: 86, 87, 89, 100, 118, 124, 132,
155, 160, 162, 179,213

Starnes, Earnest: 20

State Club Leader. See Kirby, S. J.

State 4-H Leaders. See Black, Chester; Bla-
lock, T. Carlton; Harrill, Leary Rhinehart;

Proctor, Dalton R.; Stormer, Donald L.

Stephens, Johnny: 270

Stephens, Mary Sue Moser: iii. See also
Moser, Mary Sue

Stephenson, Ola: 76

Stevens, Madeline: 189

Stevens, N. B.: 115

Stokes County: 163, 189, 271

Stormer, Donald L.: iii, 12, 271, 274, 284; pic-
tured, 13

Stroupe, Virginia: 80

Strowd, Norman: 230

"Suggested Community Club Programs"
(Division of Home Demonstration Work):
59-61

Suggs, Ralph: 133, 135, 139; pictured, 134

Sutton, Joseline: 151

Swain County: 72, 76

Swan, May: 152

Swannanoa 4-H Camp: 124-126, 131, 133,
151, 153-154, 184, 195-196, 225, 233; activ-
ity in, pictured, 130; cabin under construc-
tion, pictured, 195; pictured, 125; planners
and donors, 125

Tar Heel Club News: 132; alters format and
frequency, 81-82; is first issued, 72; mast-
head carries 4-H emblems, 84; quoted,
126-127

Tarbox, F. G.: 52

Tart, Jimmy: iii

Tatum, Edna: 101

Taylor, H. W. "Pop": 184

Taylor, Horace: 40

Taylor, Mrs. Woodrow: 248

Teague, P'ranklin: 203

Tennessee Knapp Memorial: 36

Thompson, Helen: iii

Thompson, Mae Sue: 150

Thompson, Mary Frances: 178

Thompson, P. P.: 213

Thompson, Walton: 193-194, 202, 205

Tice, James: 35

Tice, Walter: 35

Time capsule burial: at Penn in 1976, 12;
pictured, 13

Toler, Maurice: iii, 273

Tomato Clubs. See Canning Clubs; Home
Economics Clubs

Tomlin, Reid: 151

Tours, club: 86, 100, 117, 151

Tractor Maintenance School: 228; pictured,
226

297

Transylvania County: 52, 61, 88, 95
Tucker, Ned: 124, 195
Tugman, Paul: 73
Turbyfill, Emmett: 120
Turbyfill, George: 120
Turner, Jim: 139
Turner, Rosetta: 117

Tyrrell County: 206, 251, 260; christening of
warship named for, pictured, 206

U

"Uncle Sam's Saturday Service League": 48

Union County: 40, 76, 278, 283

United States Department of Agriculture: 3,

4, 13, 21
Uzzle, Robert: 231

V

Vanatta, E. S.: 52
Vance County: 52, 161, 179, 183
Vanderbilt, Mrs. George: 80, 86, 109
Vanstory, Henry: 152
Vause, Charles B.: 40

Vestal, Gladys: 144-145, 146; pictured, 146
Vocational Agriculture Clubs: 89-90
Volunteer leadership: 75, 219, 221-223, 248,
268, 274-275, 282-283; essential to com-
munity-based 4-H clubs, 258-265; functions
of, 276; number of leaders in 1978, 277;
record number of leaders in 1931, 133;
state convention, pictured, 285

W

Wagoner, Fred: iii, 185, 203, 232, 233, 234,

250, 266, 270, 272-273, 275; pictured, 236
Wagoner, John: 203
Wagoner, Margaret: 183
Wagoner, Paul: 207
Wake County: 20, 70, 145, 151, 160, 213, 270,

271
Wall, Frances MacGregor. See MacGregor,

Frances
Wall, John: 213
Wall, M. W.: 52
Wallace, Henry C: 91
Wallace, Lathan: 193, 215
Wallace, Maude: 75, 76, 77, 82, 95-96, 99, 101,

103, 104, 105, 108, 118, 120, 122-123, 136,

138; pictured, 119
Warburton, C. W.: 163
Ward, Miss (home agent of Alamance County

in 1920): 76
Ward, Archie, Jr.: 95

Ward, Wilton: 209

Warren, Gertrude: 110-111, 149, 205

Warren County: 20, 52, 162, 231, 248, 251,
271; site of first club camping in North
Carolina, 53-57

Warren Record: quoted, 53-56

Washington County: 128, 267

Watauga County: 73

Watkins, Rachael: 161

Watson, Raymond: 117, 120

The Way I See It (I. O. Schaub): 18

Wavne County: 20, 44, 46, 70, 118, 128, 135,
148, 223, 225, 230

Weatherford, David: 283; pictured, 284

Weatherspoon, Laura Belle: 142

Weaver, David S.: 155, 189, 236, 263

Wells, Charles: 126

West, James: 275; pictured, 275

Wharton, F. D.: 52

When We're Green We Grow (McKimmon):
19, 164

White, Gwen: 273

White Lake 4-H Camp: 117, 124, 133, 151,
184, 225; pictured, 115

Whitley, Elton: 118; pictured, 119

Whitlock, Helen: 178-179

Wilder, George: 208

Wildlife and Conservation: camp, 177, 184-
187, 199, 202; is introduced as a statewide
project, 154-155; scenes, pictured, 180

Wilkes County: 20, 150, 202

Williams, Pauline: 85

Williams, Sarah: 99

Williamson, H. H.: 222

Wilson, Eleanor: 268

Wilson, George: 101

Wilson, William: 101

Wilson, Wilhe Earl: 271

Wilson County: 160, 193-194, 195, 202, 284

Wingfield, Laura M.: 50

Wood, Robert: 268; pictured, 267

Wood, W. Ned: 196, 213; pictured, 214

Woodard, Raymond: 208

World War I impact: 47-48; food production
and conservation by boys and girls is
emphasized, 39, 40, 42; hampers efforts to
organize large Agricultural Club program,
42; limits space available for 1918 Short
Course, 47; on club membership ages, 8; on
general economy, 78; staffing and serv-
ices are affected by emergency appropria-
tions, 37, 39, 43; staffing and services are
affected by ending of emergency appro-
priations, 68,, 70, 74-75, 77; "Uncle Sam's
Saturday Service League" is formed, 48

World War II impact: 204, 206-213

298

Worrell, C. A.: pictured, 2 Yeager, W. G.: 52

Worsley, George: pictured, 267 Young, Maxine: 2.'}6

Wray, John D.; 37, ;3)S, 46, 47,62, 74-75, 77-78, Young Men and Women's Organization

108, 162; pictured, ;56; quoted, 47-48 (formerly Older Rural Youth): 234. See

Wright, John 1).: pictured, 267 also Older Rural Youth

Youngblood, Hannah: 203

Y Yount, Dorothy: 101

Yadkin County: 51, 91

299

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